Metro Theatre
1726 Butternut Street,
Abilene,
TX
79699
1726 Butternut Street,
Abilene,
TX
79699
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Back in 1969, when I was 12 years old, I lived on Beechwood Ln. On Saturdays, the Metro Theater must have held Saturday afternoon matinees where movies cost 50 cents to get in. I’d go with the neighbor girls who lived near by and we get dropped off and paid the admission fee and go sit in this cheap movie theater and all they would show were old black & white unknown Westerns. One I can recall was called “Lemonade Joe” and none of these movies were ever familiar to me. I wasn’t given money for treats just the admission. I never saw an old lady walking around with a flashlight. I got so bored in this theater that instead of watching what was playing I sat there and looked at the curved ceiling. It never go that dark in there either. The floors were plain concrete and the seats I believe were made of wood. We were not asked to leave but were allowed to sit there as long as we wanted. When I got older and had dates we’d go to a Saturday movie in the evenings when they were playing first run movies. I guess they played old junk you never heard of for the matinee. Imagine being dropped off with your friends at a movie theater and no pesty parents were there with you to embarrass you. It’s kind of hard to do that today. In June of 1976, I left Abilene because my job at the Aileen’s Clothing Factory closed down. I was delighted to see a photo that someone took of the Metro Theater before it was demolished. Thank you whoever you are that took this photo. I also don’t remember when this theater was closed or demolished.
According to “The Old Movie Theatre of Texas” the address is correct. Demolished in 2008 for the building of a Salvation Army Facility. Header should be changed to Closed/Demolished.
Silicon, that is the same theatre, look at the photo link posted prior to LM’s. The photo that LM posted is just of the front of the theatre.
I meant the photo that was linked to in the post from Lost Memory on 4/28/09 at 6:27 pm. Trying not to get too technical.
That new building belongs to the Salvation Army and is apparently some sort of rehab center. It has the same address as the theater, so (assuming the theater address is correct) the Metro is gone. The Salvation Army building looks no more than a few years old. Unfortunately, Historic Aerials only has a 2004 photo for the location, and it’s too blurry to tell if the theater was still there then or not. I’m quite sure it wasn’t there on May 11 this year, though.
I looked for this building on the Live.com map. Copy this: 1726 Butternut Street, Abilene, TX 79602 and paste it into the search box on the Live.com site. Switch to bird’s eye view. I don’t see any building that looks likes this building. Either the building is gone or the address above is incorrect.
Now I’m really confused. I can’t find a photo from 4/28/09. The photo Don Lewis linked to was dated as having been taken on May 11, 2009. Assuming it does depict the Metro, and the date is correct, we’d also have to assume that the Metro was demolished, the new multi-story building seen in Google Street View was built, and Google came by to take new photos of the block, all in the last 12 days.
I’m not saying that such a thing couldn’t happen in Texas. Just that it’s very unlikely.
If you want the map button above to show the correct location, you need the correct zip code which is 79602. I don’t see any building that resembles a Quonset Hut at this address. Looks like it was demolished.
In the photo above from 4/28/09 you can see a fence and carport to the right of the Metro. Google Street View for the 1726 block of Butternut shows a new multi-story building, with a fence and carport to it’s right. Just saying is all…..
There’s some confusion here. The Cinema Treasures link on the Flickr photo page for the 2009 photo goes to the Brownwood Lyric Theatre page, even though the photo is captioned Metro Abilene. It isn’t the Lyric, but I don’t think it’s the Metro either. It doesn’t resemble the building in the 1984 photos at all.
The Google Maps link above goes to the wrong location. If fetches up in the 800 block. After finding the actual location of 1726 Butternut on Google Maps and checking the Street View, there’s nothing resembling the building in either of the 1984 photos, or the one in the 2009 photo. If we’ve got the correct address, the Metro must have been demolished. I have no idea what building the 2009 photo actually depicts.
A view from 2009 of the Metro Theater building in Abilene.
Here is another 1984 photo.
Here is a 1984 photo. Style is quonset hut as mentioned above.
http://tinyurl.com/cnkruj
From what I recall, this theater was in a “Quonset Hut” type building. It was operated by an older couple who worked the ticket booth and concession stand. I remember seeing “The Ten Commandments” there when I was about 10 or so.