Loews Towne Theatre

400 Jefferson Road,
Rochester, NY 14623

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Additional Info

Previously operated by: Loews

Architects: Joseph Schuler Jr

Previous Names: Jo-Mor Towne Theatre, Towne I & II Theatre, Towne I, II, II

Nearby Theaters

Loews Towne Theatre

Opened June 4, 1965 by Jo-Mor Enterprises (then Rochester’s largest circuit) as a single screen theatre. It often featured reserved seat roadshow pictures. Jo-Mor Theatres added a second auditorium, almost as large as the original in May 1969 and it was renamed Towne I & II Theatre. Both were very nice.

Jo-More twinned the second auditorium in 1972 making three theatres.

Loews bought the Towne I, II III Theatre in 1981 when Jo-Mor was tightening up operations. The Towne Theatre was a great location because it was near both the University of Rochester and the Rochester Institute of Technology and did very good business. Loews had to buy the less successful Westgate Theatre from Jo-Mor in nearby Gates to get the Towne Theatre.

Loews twinned the original auditorium making it a four screener. This meant four long narrow auditoriums. Loews eventually dumped the Towne Theatre in the mid-1990’s when they started shutting down older suburban houses. The strip mall the theatre was in went downhill pretty fast and today is occupied by several run-down businesses. Complex looks pretty bad today.

Contributed by dhroc

Recent comments (view all 7 comments)

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on August 9, 2011 at 10:11 am

Thanks for posting first I have heard of tis Loews house.

kjb2012
kjb2012 on September 3, 2011 at 1:20 pm

Any other photos?

dhroc
dhroc on September 3, 2011 at 5:34 pm

kjb2012 I goofed this up.

Paul
Paul on December 2, 2011 at 11:05 am

I will take a photo of what is there now so everyone can see where it was.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 24, 2016 at 9:01 am

June 4th, 1965 grand opening ad in photo section.

rivest266
rivest266 on January 24, 2016 at 9:57 am

May 16th, 1969 grand opening ad as Rochester’s first twin cinema also in photo section.

MSC77
MSC77 on December 30, 2021 at 4:13 pm

Here’s a new 4-page 50th anniversary FIDDLER ON THE ROOF retrospective featuring a roadshow playdate chronology and historian Q&A. The Towne’s lengthy run is mentioned in the piece.

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