Aberdeen Theatre
115 W. Wishkah Street,
Aberdeen,
WA
98520
115 W. Wishkah Street,
Aberdeen,
WA
98520
1 person
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This theater, built in 1929, is just two blocks from the D & R Theatre on the main one way street headed toward Hoquiam. It was originally heated by a wood fired boiler.
Now operated as a church, the congregation improved the building by installing a new roof, new plumbing, new electrical wiring, new carpet, and new heating system. Unfortunately, the church removed the beautiful tiled free-standing ticket booth and the theater’s marquee.
Contributed by
Ken Layton
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Recent comments (view all 45 comments)
Yeh, I’m curious too. Is he still going to buy and reopen this theater?
This is from the Centralia Daily Chronicle dated 4/10/30:
ABERDEEN, April 10.â€"The new Roxy Theater, just completed and opened by D. Constanti, Tacoma theater man, has been sold to the Warner Brothers Picture Corporation for a sum reported in excess of $250,000. The Roxy is the first theater Warner Brothers have purchased in the state, but it is intimated they have further purchases pending. The Roxy is one of the largest and finest show houses in Southwest Washington, with a seating capacity of 1,100 persons. Ii was formally opened April 1.
I was employed by ACT III theatres to remove the projection equipment from the aberdeen theatre in the early 90’s. The projectors were rebuilt and installed in the Newport, OR tri-plex shortly there after. The Newport theatre is expanding, and I am getting the projectors back. It would be cool to see them returned, should the theatre reopen.
Scott, what make of equipment was removed? When I left in the 1980’s the projectors were Simplex 35’s with RCA Photophone sound heads, Simplex bases and Brenkert EnArc lamps with a generator and voltage regulating equipment. Also the sound system was an Eprad stereo setup with 1 back stage speaker and surounds in the auditorium. Not a very good system. (a poor man’s dolby) That is what Grays Harbor Theatres installed and sold out to Tom Moyer who I believe then sold to Act 111.
In the opening description it states that the theater was heated by a wood fired boiler. In fact there has never been a boiler in this theater. The Aberdeen Theater’s furnace is located on the third floor over the stage house. The original stoves are still in use, they are now fired by gas but they were originally fired by black oil. In the 1980’s one of the staff members tried wood but it was difficult to haul it up three floors of narrow stairs. The stoves are like a wood stove used today in many peoples homes only much larger. the heat is dry and behind the fire boxes is the fan and ducting to circulate the hot air into the theater. This works very well. But there has never been steam in the Aberdeen.
Also; when wood was tried it was done because the theater was in financial trouble. The employee who tried the wood could get it for very cheap but because the stoves are so large the theater would burn a cord every other day. So not only was hauling it up to the stoves a problem, storage of a quantity to heat the place for 1 week in the winter required about 4 cord. There was no place to keep that much wood. Also the fire dept. approved the use of wood but only grudgingly. And they did not want it stacked all over the place. The theater was designed for oil or gas and nothing else.
Here is a 1975 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yjnzoor
Great picture, brings back many memories of afternoons at the movies when I was a kid.
There are some great photos of the Aberdeen Theatre on this site: jonesphotocollection.com. Do a site search for the Aberdeen or theaters in general. The photos are amazing!
The marquee when it was called the Warners Theater is absolutely amazing.