Avon Theatre
459 Clinton Avenue,
Newark,
NJ
07108
459 Clinton Avenue,
Newark,
NJ
07108
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Another neighborhood theatre run by Eddie Steinberg from the mid 1950’s to 1968. Catered mostly to an African-American audience. Ran double features and changed its programming 2-3 times per week. Closed in 1968 shortly after the infamous riots in Newark. It has since been demolished.
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
It looks like the entire block between Hunterdon & Peshine has been plowed under and replaced by housing. This is on the odd side of the street, between 450 and 460, more or less. After you cross Hunterdon, the businesses are numbered in the 470s and 480s. I don’t believe the theater is still around, but I can’t say that definitively.
Are you going to speculate on the status of every theater? I’m just curious.
If I have to work all day on July 4th, and July 5th, allow me a little speculation to ease the pain.
Take two excedrin and call me in the morning.
You might be right about this theater being gone. An aerial view shows alot of vacant land in this vicinity.
The vacant land is on the even side of the street. The odd side is a set of houses which look relatively new.
LOL I had the aerial map upside down. The apartment buildings opposite the vacant land are relatively new. From the aerial view, there is no building there that could have been a 980 seat theater. There are older buildings on the next block, but their addresses wouldn’t match the address above.
I was just in Newark yesterday to photographs cinemas. This theatre is demolished.
Here is a photo circa 1939:
http://tinyurl.com/ooch45
Could this be the Avon pictured twice on the right side of this 1912 trade journal page? archive
I am guessing that it is an earlier theater that was closer to the actual junction of Clinton and Avon Avenues. The archived article indicates that the seating capacity for the pictured Avon Theater was 300 whereas the listed capacity (noted above) for this Avon was over three times that. I can’t see any similarities in the respective facades, though I suppose the theater could have been given a radical facelift at some point.