Strand Theatre
421 Spruce Street,
Scranton,
PA
18503
421 Spruce Street,
Scranton,
PA
18503
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The Strand Theatre was the most ornate of the Scranton theatres, a smaller art deco gem. I believe in its last days it was twinned, and closed in late 1970’s and the building has most likely been demolished. It was on busy Spruce Street around the corner from the Comerford Theatre.
Contributed by
f. musso
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
A Kimball organ was installed in the Strand Theater in 1916. That organ was replaced by another Kimball organ in 1924.
If your interested in what became of the first Kimball organ installed in the Strand in 1916, you can read about its history here.
The number is 421 (Spruce).
This was a great theatre, too. I saw “Chinatown” there a few years before it closed. In some ways, it was nicer than the Comerford around the corner. I recall the lobby being nicer. And like the Comerford and the Center not far away, it ended its days showing the occasional porno film.
The Strand was designed by Robert W. Gibson, the architect of the Cartier building in New York, in 1901, as the Merchants' and Mechanics' Bank. The building was razed in the 1970s to make way for the modern Financial Federal Bank.
This was part of ABC Theaters of Pennsylvania in the early seventies.
I worked at the Strand theater part time as an usher in 1968 when I was in high school. I got 85 cents an hour and thought I was doing well because I was told one of the other theaters downtown paid it’s ushers 65 cents an hour.The manager’s name was Mr.Foley and the assistant manager’s name was Mr.Burney [sp?].When I first started working at the Strand there was a long run of “Gone With the Wind” I saw it so many times I had every line in the whole movie memorized.The ushers wore a red blazer jacket with a white shirt and black bow tie and black pannts and black shoes.There were 2 other theaters in downtown Scranton then, the Comerford and the Center. If we [the ushers] went to one of the other theaters and told them we worked at the Strand they would let us into see the movie for free, except one time they wouldn’t let me in the Center because you had to be 18 to see the movie and I was only 16. I left Scranton in 1969 and sometime in the late 70s or early 80s I went back to visit and went to to where the Strand had been and it was gone. There was a new, much smaller building in its place, I think it was a bank.
1975 photo of the Strand theatre.
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