Esquire Theatre
209 North Superior Street,
Toledo,
OH
43604
209 North Superior Street,
Toledo,
OH
43604
1 person
favorited this theater
The Esquire Theatre shows as open in 1945. It was located a couple blocks north of Adams Street. The theatre closed sometime in 1964.
It was demolished in 2007.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The Esquire, like the Pantheon, Eastwood and Westwood, was a stadium style theatre. It was located on the same street as the Loop and Royal. It was the last theatre to be built in downtown Toledo. It is now a nightclub. It had a distinct chinese flair in the design of the lobby and was almost identical to the Pantheon.
The Esquire was actually converted into a live music venue in the late 80’s called Club Bijou. Used to go there quite a bit from 2004 onwards and thought it was a great place, while pretty rundown it still had a nice atmosphere.
Exterior in 1983: View link
Interior in 2007 here: View link
Another interior from 2006: View link
Sadly, it was demolished last year to make way for the Lucas County Arena Project. You can see a webcam of the site today here: http://www.lucascountyarena.com/webcam2.asp
The new Bijou is on Byrne Street and is the most barren, devoid-of-character place I’ve visted in a long time!
Here is an item from Boxoffice magazine, May 1950:
To exploit “Mrs. Mike” at the Esquire Theater, Toledo, manager Frank Manente had a touring ballyhoo appear on buses, downtown stores and hotel lobbies. An oversize book, made up by the art department with lettering on the front and back covers, was carried by a theater employee.
1977 photo of the Esquire Theatre.
View link
The Esquire was demolished to make way for the new county arena.
There remains only one downtown theatre, open or closed, the Valentine, which has been redone as a performing arts center.
The Esquire and several storefronts were constructed in the shell of a six storey building which was demolished down to the second storey. The building had been built for Lasalles Department store and predates their newer building from 1917 which is now the Lasalle Apartments. After Lasalles moved, the building housed a number of smaller businesses before the partial demolition and reconstruction. A series of arched windows filled in with brick were visible on the South side exterior wall of the Esquire, these had been filled in for the theatre conversion. Most of the interior structural work for the theatre was executed in poured concrete with very little steelwork.
Thank you wcjfrisk for your insight into the Esquire Theater. I always wondered about those arches on the side. I was always under the assumption that the Esquire was a newly built theater from the ground up. Of all the downtown theaters I never saw a movie at the Esquire, Paramount, Loop or Royal. We always went to the Rivoli, Palace, Pantheon, Valentine or Princess…all on the same street.