Palace Theatre
468 Main Street,
New Britain,
CT
06051
468 Main Street,
New Britain,
CT
06051
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened as the New Britain Opera House, the Palace was also known as the Majestic and was the fourth largest theater in the city behind the Strand, Capitol, and Embassy theaters.
The Palace has since been lost.
Contributed by
Roger Katz
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
This is a photo of a fire at a Palace Theater in New Britain, CT. Caption reads:
Palace Theater fire in New Britain. New Britain Chief William B. Noble giving orders to men operating pipe from the ladder of a Seagrave aerial truck. Jan. 8, 1926.
Oops. I meant 1881.
I am a member of the Hole in the Wall Theater at 116 Main St. Alas, we are not in the space of any prior theater. HITW is a performing arts theater located in a building immediately adjacent to the Andrews Building. The building we are in is a three story office building, with the theater occupying the ground floor. In the late 1800’s a wood frame church sat on this site and interestingly enough vestiges of that structure still are part of the current building. It if makes anyone feel better, the Andrews building has been renovated into office space and a restaurant is moving into the ground floor. Another community organization has purchased the Trinity Methodist church and is preserving the building while converting it to a Performing Arts Center. The RAO building is also being renovated into apartments, so at least in downtown New Britain, once vacant old buildings are being saved and renovated for new uses.Several years ago, the City of New Brtiain renovated the Gates building downtown to house the Board of Education. So, while all the old theaters have gone, there is a renewed attitude about preserving what is left.
The year given for this photo is 1969.
There is only one theater listed under New Britain CT in the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide, the “Russwin Lyceum”. Unfortunately, there are no street addresses in this Guide. The Russwin Lyceum was on the ground floor of its building, had a stage which was 42 feet deep and had 1,138 seats. There was also a Hotel Russwin in New Britain. Curiously, the list of people associated with this theater states that the advertising agent for the Russwin Lyceum is the “manager of Opera House.”
The Palace was north of the center of town on Main Street, not south of town where the Hole in the Wall is now located. It was a big theater, seating over 1200. Toward the end of its life, it succumbed to showing only “adult” movies. It suffered mysterious fire damage in 1979 and was subsequently torn down.
See Embassy Theatre for info on Russwin Lyceum, as they were in same location. Book, Images of America: New Britain, Vol II has photo of both marquees. Anyway, found Palace while doing research on Capitol Lunch (famous sauced hotdogs). I have a photo of North end of Main, looking South toward what is now Rt 72. Palace is on right, Capitol Lunch on left (where New bright Plaza is now). Today it would be somewhere between Webster Bank and Yankee Peddlar and Pawn.
Should have mentioned…Capitol Lunch is now on same side of street as Palace was.
I saw an eBay listing of a ca.1913 postcard showing the New Britain Opera House building with a vertical sign reading Keeney’s. Keeney’s Theatre at New Britain is mentioned in the December 21, 1907, issue of The Billboard as well, so (assuming that Keeney’s didn’t switch locations during the period) this must have been the theater’s name for several years.
The 1899-1900 Cahn Guide lists the house as the Cosmopolitan Opera House, with New Britain Opera House as an AKA.
I was the manager of the Palace in 1964. We showed the first Beatles, “Help” and had 1250 seats.