RKO Palace Theater
71 Clinton Avenue,
Rochester,
NY
14604
71 Clinton Avenue,
Rochester,
NY
14604
2 people
favorited this theater
The RKO Palace Theater opened on Christmas Day of 1928 and soon became the favorite downtown movie palace for this city. Large signs on the theater building announced as “The Showplace of Rochester” and over the main entrance was the statement that this was “Rochester’s most beautiful theater.”
The architects designed the knockout of a theater in Georgian style. Behind the main entrance was the main lobby with a terrazo floor, elaborate plasterwork, huge mirrors, crystal chandeliers, and a ceiling which seemed far, far overhead. The next area was the inner lobby with its twin staircases to the balcony, vaulted ceiling, oil paintings, gilded metalwork, and lots more mirrors and chandeliers.
The auditorium was more of the same. There were velvet draped organ grilles, elaborate box seats, more chandeliers, an 80 foot deep stage, and a fine example of the organ builders craft from the Wurlitzer company.
The theater succumbed in the 1960’s to dwindling profits and was demolished in 1965. To this day there is nothing to mark the site but a parking lot.
Contributed by
Carl
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Recent comments (view all 24 comments)
kohoutek: Watching the demolition video that you posted on Feb. 9th of this theatre was very heartbreaking and so sad for the citizens of Rochester! The wrecking ball had taken down the brick wall and the parking lot behind was visible from the once opulent auditorium. Does anyone have memories of this grand old lady?
ziggy: And the site you posted on July 20th was most interesting especially the collection of Palace photos. Such a shame that Rochester has lost this beautiful theatre in 1965 to urban renewal. The exterior was breathtaking and the interior lobby photo(with Christmas tree) was even more so.
This 1932 ad also mentions an RKO Temple Theatre for Rochester, but I can’t find a listing for that theatre at Cinema Treasures. According to the 1932 Film Daily Year Book, the Temple had 1,496 seats. I wonder whatever became of it?
www.i8.photobucket.com/albums/a18/Warrengwhiz/rkousa.jpg
Warren; The Temple Theatre is listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914- 1915 edition. The address was 37 Clinton Avenue S., Rochester, NY
Thanks, Ken! Perhaps some citizen of Rochester will start a listing for the Temple. I know nothing of its history, or even if that 1914-15 address is still the same in 2007.
The Temple Theatre was reported to have 2,200 seats when it first opened as a vaudeville house on December 6th, 1909. It was built and operated by James H. Moore, who also owned the Temple Theatre in Detroit, Michigan. Both the exterior and interior of Rochester’s Temple were described as “modified Colonial style.” A gorgeous mural on the sounding board above the proscenium arch was painted by Rafael Berk, a prominent Rochester artist at the time.
Hi Warren, right now you may well be the one person at this website that knows the most about the RKO Temple in Rochester. It was torn down when I was very young and I don’t have any distinct memories of it at all. It may even have been torn down before I was born. I have memories of the block it sat on being cleared, but the theatre may have already been gone before then. If you were to start a posting on it you would be doing us a service! There was another theatre near the Temple called the “Victoria”, but I also have no memories of that.
I played a concert on the RKO Palace Wurlitzer in the Auditorium theatre last December. It is one of the best wurlitzer theatre organs you will ever hear.
The year given for this photo is 1964.
Here’s a new direct link to a slide show about the RKO Palace. It may take a few seconds to start loading:
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