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Home » Theater Guide » Location » United States » Connecticut » Old Saybrook » Old Saybrook Cinema
Also known as Hoyts Saybrook Two, Saybrook Theater

Old Saybrook Cinema

Old Saybrook, CT
166 Main Street
, Old Saybrook, CT 6475 United States
(map)
Status: Closed
Screens: Twin
Style: Colonial Revival
Function: Retail
Seats: 558
Chain: Unknown
Architect: Unknown
Firm: Unknown
Old Saybrook Cinema
Exterior view of the Saybrook Theater before its conversion to retail
Photo courtesy of Ross Melnick
Built in the 1937 and adorned with beautiful murals in its outside dome, the now-twinned movie house was operated by Hoyts Cinemas until February 2000, when it was closed. Hoyts cited competition as the reason for shuttering it.

The former Hoyts Saybrook Cinema Two reopened as the Old Saybrook Cinema in June, 2001, however, under new management. Ray Welch, who owns three small cinemas in Dayville, Norwich, and Jewett City, operated the twinned theater and showed first and second run films at slightly discounted prices -- $5 for adults, $4 for children and $3 for seniors. He also installed new seats with cup holders and new carpeting and concessions.

Sadly, business never materialized and the theater closed again in February 2002. The theater could not compete for first run movies with Hoyts Saybrook Cinemas Six down the street, and could not draw patrons to its arthouse fare due to the nearby art cinemas in Madison and Niantic. The theater's end was particularly sad as literally no one came to the cinema.

The theater has been gutted and converted into retail space.
Contributed by Roger Katz, Cinema Treasures

YOUR COMMENTS

 
The Saybrook Theatre seated 558 people.
posted by William on Nov 19, 2003 at 5:36pm
The theatre has been gutted for retail space.
posted by Roger Katz on Jan 3, 2004 at 7:26am
Contrary to what the status above says it isn't demolished!
posted by Roger Katz on Jan 3, 2004 at 2:09pm
...it's just closed.
posted by Roger Katz on Mar 25, 2004 at 5:23pm
It was operated by Interstate Theater Boston, Mass. during the fifties.
posted by Richard D on Oct 3, 2005 at 1:09pm
Function is retail.
posted by Roger Katz on Oct 3, 2005 at 1:22pm
Did you know......A 200 year old building was located on this site before the movie theater was built here:

"Azariah Mather House - 166 Main Street

From 1728 to 1928 the Azariah Mather house stood on this site. He was the forth minister of the Congregational Church; direct descend of Cotton and Increase Mather from the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Mather's tombstone is one of the most interesting in Cypress Cemetary. A motion picture theater was built on the site in 1937".
posted by Lost Memory on Oct 3, 2005 at 4:05pm
It has a real beautiful mural in the rotunda, I'm glad they're keeping the outside. But if Katharine Hepburn was still alive, I'd think she'd try to save the thing, probably make it into a playhouse. Oh well, I guess a nice book store, cafe, er Starbucks, or Witch Shop will do just fine there.
posted by Spike Spiegel on Jan 31, 2006 at 4:08pm
The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center is opening next year in a former theatre just up the street from this one.
posted by Roger Katz on Jun 12, 2006 at 2:26am
The lobby and much of the center of the theatre will be home to a new seafood restaurant. An antique store and an arts store are in the front while a nail salon, and offices are near the back. The rotunda near the lobby will remain and it appears offices will be located on the upper level accessible via stairs near the Main St door and via elevator near the parking lot door.
posted by moviebuff81 on Jul 15, 2006 at 3:24am
I was there yesterday at night as I was cycling from Hartford to Old Saybrook. The mural in the front is quite nice, a picture of a ship from the dock with a Norman Rockwell-esque child and dog feel to it. There are 2 retail shops open on the right and 1 large vacant one on the left. If you go around to the back, there's a Romeo and Juliet balcony with pillars. The side of the former auditorium has 5 or 6 retail establishments that all look alike with 2 ionic pillars for each entrance.

I must say this is the nicest conversion of cinema to retail I've seen as it really fits in the with the charm of the area.
posted by shoeshoe14 on Jan 9, 2008 at 5:41pm
If anyone needs the few pics I took of this, you can email me at shoeshoe14@yahoo.com
posted by shoeshoe14 on Jan 9, 2008 at 6:18pm
1986 Photo

posted by Lost Memory on May 5, 2009 at 12:18pm
This theater was built by Charlie Bonoff, father of Leo Bonoff who ran Bonoff's Theater (now Madison Art Cinemas) in Madison. There is a 1940s photo of the Bonoff family in front of the Saybrook at www.bonoff.net. The same photo makes a brief appearance in The Tent: Life in the Round, a new documentary about the Warwick Musical Theatre in Warwick, RI, started by Charlie's grandson Burton "Buster" Bonoff.
posted by mp775 on Sep 2, 2009 at 5:29am
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