Norwalk Theatre
57 E. Main Street,
Norwalk,
OH
44857
57 E. Main Street,
Norwalk,
OH
44857
7 people
favorited this theater
The Norwalk Theatre was built in 1941 for the Schine Theatres chain. It contains a balcony seating 224 and there are 700 seats in the orchestra. There is a theatre organ on a lift, and an orchestra pit. It also has a stage set-up for shows. The theater has all of its original art and fixtures intact and working. The theater has been constructed in a Greek-Deco style and it has the largest marquee in Ohio. The theater showed movies as well as live shows and concerts. It was closed in late-2011.
Contributed by
Connie Cole
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Recent comments (view all 63 comments)
Couple changes to my post: I meant to say “not in operation” in the 5th line down. Also it was “Towne And Country”, forgot the ‘e’. Finally the nice gentleman I was referring too was Ronn. Sorry about that, it just took a while for me to jar my memory banks as I am somewhat flustered about the news of this theatre closing.
Geo
The theatre has been closed since autumn 2011. The interior & exterior were not maintained. Water damage is evident on the ceiling and stage floor. A portion of the marquee is falling apart. A for-profit children’s theatre group was involved for a while but little maintainence (or cleaning) was done since the building was sold by Towne & Country in November 2006.
The Norwalk Theatre was sold at auction on 7/31/2012 for $30,000, pending approval of the court.
So the theatre was bought? By whom? I sure hope that it is someone that will do good and perhaps bring some business to the theatre. I am amazed that it was sold for just $30,000. Back when I was interested in the place, I was looking at another ‘0’ attached to that figure.
Sorry to hear that the prior owners didn’t do much to fix the place up. I was aware that ceiling needing repairing, when I looked at the place, but there weren’t any leaks.
I am crossing my fingers that whomever bought the place will do right and fix it up properly and finally get some good acts there.
I tell you, I wish the bottom didn’t fall out on my end (financially). I think I could have worked wonders with this place.
The theatre was purchased by a local man but the transfer hasn’t yet taken place according to the county auditor’s website. Default on mortgage and property taxes resulted in the low sale price. Judging from the interior and exterior appearance, it will take many $$$ to clean and restore.
Update on the Norwalk Theatre: the new owner has begun repairing the roof on the building. No doubt there will be a great deal of interior work to deal with as well. There doesn’t appear to be a re-open date available yet but it’s a step in the right direction!
I managed the theater from 2007 until late 2008 under incredibly inept owners!! The LaFountains ran that place into the ground and alienated themselves from the community. I grew up in Norwalk and they hired me to work with the community to help out their already soiled reputation. They were not even from Ohio and enjoyed selling most of the valuable out of the theater in order to “make back the money that they lost in buying the dump.” ( their NOT mine) I ended up quitting because they refused to pay me and ended up owing me over $300 for the hard work and sweat equity that I and my family put into that place to see it succeed. They left a bad taste in a lot of peoples mouths. I have high hopes for the new owners but they have to fork out the money for the damage that the LaFountains let happen by refusing to fix the roof after I had SEVERAL contactors come in to give them estimates. They thought that because they had a 5 screen movie theater in Michigan that they could run this place. I have so many other stories about their blatant neglect of this beautiful building.
Interesting previous comment! The 2006 purchasers of the Norwalk Theatre were provided with a “turnkey” operation. Everything necessary (and more!) to begin providing live entertainment was included in the sale. The place was certainly not “a dump” as they may have told others. The building was absolutely clean. The 2006 purchasers visited the area several times and took photos of the premises so they knew exactly what they were purchasing. It is quite true that many things in the buildings were taken out and sold: original lighting fixtures in the lobby, racks of valuable costumes, the theatre organ and the grand piano are ones of which I’m aware. Unfortunately they also asked people to “donate” to their profit-making venture—which was NOT a 501©3 operation. Since the most recent sale in July 2012, besides the roofing repairs and some changing light bulbs, nothing else appears to have been done and there is no re-open date scheduled. Really sad as T & C Players, who had owned the building since 1974, filled the place for years with live shows and concerts.
In light of some previous comments, is this bad news for Fenton?
I have been associated with 3 owners of the theatre including the present one. All have been interested in making the theatre a success. Operating an older theatre is hard work and requires a lot of time, dedication, and money, and progress is sometimes slow. If you want the theatre to succeed – try volunteering your time and energy.