Collins Theater
136 Maple Avenue,
Covington,
VA
24426
136 Maple Avenue,
Covington,
VA
24426
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The Hippodrome, or at least the 1913 iteration, was a different building on this same site.
The Hippodrome Theatre at Covington, Virginia, was listed as a subscriber to The American Motion Picture League in that outfit’s ad in The Moving Picture World of December 20, 1913.
Seth, I agree. The only way I found this one was when I was on my way to get a picture of the Covington downtown.
I think it’s really misleading to list these as demolished just because the auditorium is gone. I don’t want anyone to miss seeing this because they think the building isn’t there anymore. You can almost never see the inside of these older theaters, and most of them were gutted long ago, even if they technically still have walls and a roof over the location of the seats/screen.
According to the 1991 NRHP listing, this was built in the ‘20s sometime and may have originally been called the Hippodrome. Michael Collins built the neighboring Hotel Collins in 1910, and this larger structure may have replaced a small wood-frame Hippodrome that operated previously. Although the NRHP listing says this is 128 S Maple, '136’ is clearly visible on the ticket booth. The auditorium was demolished long ago, and the lobby was being used to store junk by the public works department in 2012. The 2015 streetview shows it spruced up a bit.