Capitol Theatre
182-34 Main Street,
Sanford,
ME
04073
182-34 Main Street,
Sanford,
ME
04073
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The Capitol Theatre opened as the 1,300 seat Leavitt Theatre. The Leavitt Theatre was built by Frank C. Leavitt. The name was changed to Capitol Theater around 1930. The Capitol Theater closed in 1968 and was demolished.
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Lost Memory
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This is a photo of the Leavitt Theater.
The Leavitt Theatre was under construction in late 1910. In its issues of November 5 and November 19 that year, trade journal Domestic Engineering carried items about the letting of the plumbing contract and the installation of a heating plant.
Frank C. Leavitt was one of Sanford’s leading citizens, a coal and wood merchant, and the owner of quite a bit of property, including the town’s most important business block, but that didn’t stop him from getting into trouble with the law. He opened Sanford’s first movie theater in a billiard parlor on the fourth floor of the Leavitt Building in 1908, and apparently some locals were not pleased with the new entertainment. The official report of the state’s attorney general, covering cases for two years through November 30, 1908, included a report that Frank C. Leavitt had been charged with exhibiting obscene pictures.
Fortunately he was found not guilty, or it might have ended his promising career as a movie exhibitor, and the Leavitt Theatre might never have been built.