Merced Theatre
301 West Main Street,
Merced,
CA
95340
301 West Main Street,
Merced,
CA
95340
2 people
favorited this theater
The Merced Theatre, designed by the Reid Bros., was built in 1930 by Golden State Theatres, a dominant circuit in Central and Northern California. It opened on October 31, 1931.
It became part of United Artists Theatres in the mid-1970’s and by the mid-1980’s, the original 1,658-seat auditorium had become four screens.
The Merced Theatre closed in the Spring of 2002 because of competition from a new stadium theater which opened a block away. In July of 2002, the city of Merced approved the purchase of this theatre for $700,000, half the $1.4 million asking price. According to the Merced Sun-Star it will be managed by the Merced Theatre Foundation, a non-profit agency, renovation work would take at least 3 years and up to $3 million to complete. The theatre is to operate as a community theatre, and it also has street-level shops and upper-level apartments.
Only 300 seats were being used in what was screen 2, but this operation closed in 2009. By 2012, the entire theatre has re-opened as a single auditorium known as the Art Kamanger Center at the Merced Theatre.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 34 comments)
The Merced Theatre opened on Saturday, October 31, 1931 by Golden State and Realty Company.
This is a December 2008 photo.
According to the Merced Theater website, status should be Closed/Restoring.
Here is a 1981 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/m6jx96
Another photo is here.
This is the National Register of Historic Places registration form for the Merced Theater. The architects were James Reid and Merritt Reid.
2009 photo of the Merced Theatre courtesy otterphoto.
View link
My parents operated a department store on 17th and K in Merced. As I recall there was a small theatre, The Rio, located on 16th near K, which showed mostly Spanish speaking movies. This was in the late 40s and 50s.
The Theater is completely restored and is open now
A few July 2012 photos can be seen here and here.