Latchis Theatre
39 Main Street,
Keene,
NH
39 Main Street,
Keene,
NH
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Demetrius P. Latchis opened his Latchis Theatre on November 21, 1923. It featured both vaudeville and movies. Additional information on this theatre would be of interest.
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
An Estey organ, opus 2147, was installed in this theater in 1923.
Seems to me there was a Latchis Theater and a Comiston Theater in Newport.N.H. both owned by the Latchis family, but this is only a guess.
Good guess Hank. If your interested in adding the Latchis Theater in Newport, here is a timeline that I found.
HISTORIC CHRONOLOGY of NEWPORT:
1947—Peter Latchis, owner of the Newport House and other hotels as well as a chain of theaters, indicated to reporters that “there will be a theater if the people want it” when questioned about rumors that he planned to build a theater on Sunapee St. in the rear of the Newport House.
1948—Work on the new theatre project, which began Sunday, is being carried out by Peter Latchis, proprietor of the Newport House and member of the partnership which operated the Latchis chain of theatres in Brattleboro, Vt.; Claremont, Keene and elsewhere. Mr. Latchis told reporters Monday night that the theatre would be open this fall. He stated that the new theatre, a one-story building with no balcony, will have a capacity of 800 persons.
1949—Latchis Theater opens in an addition to Newport House on Park Street side. [Newport House was on corner of Sunapee and Park.
1953—Newport now has the same type of motion picture entertainment available at only three other movie theaters in New England. The Latchis Theater is being equipped with a stereophonic motion picture sound system with multiple magnetic tracks.
1965—On the evening of Christmas Day, Newport House and adjacent Latchis (movie) Theatre [at northeast corner of Sunapee and Park streets] burn, and are later demolished.
I remember going here occasionally as a kid. I more often went to the Colonial as that theater generally ran more family movies(Disney) then the Latchis did. It seems to me the Latchis in the 70’s and early 80’s ran mostly R rated films. I remember toward the end we used to have to dress accordingly if we were going to see a film in the Latchis during colder times of the year as their heat wasn’t very good. Mostly what I remember about the inside was the ceiling had a large oval decoration attached to it of which ½ of it was missing. I’m thinking that it must have been installed in two parts originally and one of them came down or was removed for safety reasons.
Here is a photo of Main St. in Keene in the late 30’s or 40’s showing the Latchis on the left. View link
I have some information on what remains of the Latchis Theater. The building was to be divided into retail and restaurant space in the late 80’s. Work was begun and the theater’s auditorium was gutted out to the bare walls. Steelwork was begun to divide the space up but in the fall of 1989 all work ceased when the country was heading into recession and the bank that was financing the project pulled out. The building has sat unfinished since then. If you are visiting Keene on Lampson St there is a double doorway behind a dumpster that the doors are chained closed but do open a crack so you can see into the old auditorium space. I wasn’t able to get any photos of the space but did get several of the outside of the building. I’ll post these seperately.
Here’s a photo of the only part of theater that is currently in use. It’s the former entrance which was a long narrow passage that basically took you through the Main St building and out the back into the large auditorium building. It is now a Subway sandwich shop. View link
Here’s a view of the auditorium building from Main St looking down Lampson St. You can see in the lower left the dumpster with the double doors with the yellow sign behind it that I previously mentioned. View link
Here’s another photo of the same side of the building looking from the other way toward Main St. View link
From 1940 a postcard view of the Latchis Theatre in Keene, New Hampshire.