Avalon Theater
13303 Linwood Street,
Detroit,
MI
48238
13303 Linwood Street,
Detroit,
MI
48238
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Although C. Howard Crane submitted early plans for the Avalon, it ended up being designed by the Chicago-based firm of Graven and Mayger, who only designed a couple of theaters in the Detroit area, including the original Mayan-Aztec inspired interior of the Fisher, lost to a bland 60s modernization.
Built for the Wisper and Westman chain in 1928, the Avalon was fairly large for a neighborhood house, and sat nearly 2000.
It closed in 1967 but its organ was removed. The Avalon sat crumbling away for almost another decade prior to being razed.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
A Barton theater organ size 3/10 was installed in the Avalon Theater in 1927.
Lost memory: the Barton organ in the Avalon was built on subcontract by the Wangerin company in nearby Milwaukee. The instrument remained in the theatre after it closed. A local Detroit theatre organ aficionado attempted to purchase it at a more than fair price, but the theatre owner Sarah Davidson would not sell it—she had delusions of greater financial gain by donating it to a church, which never happened. Scrappers got inside the building and took everything made of metal from the organ, including the pipes. The same individual purchased the remains of the organ from the shuttered theatre in 1970, and just the parts that remained live on in other instruments today.