Ashland Theatre
203 England Street,
Ashland,
VA
23005
203 England Street,
Ashland,
VA
23005
3 people
favorited this theater
The Ashland Theatre, which was built in 1940, sits directly on Route 54 (England Street) in a ‘Mayberry-like’ town. Its facade has a distinct Art Moderne tower with glass block. In a small adjoining building was a cafe.
Rumor has it that two of the four doors on the side of the cafe were originally African-American-only restrooms. Operated as a second-run movie house until about 1998, when it still had its old Century projectors in place. Saw some ocassional use once again from 2005 until 2007 with film screenings and live events.
Contributed by
Ed Worthington
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
More info and photos of the Ashland here:
http://www.hanoverhumanesociety.org/theater.htm
The theater is “currently CLOSED due to repairs.”
theater for sale …loopnet
Still for sale. LoopNet gives a seat count of 330 and year built as 1940.
I HATE LISTINGS WITH NO PRICE……….NO I AM NOT CALLING TO FIND OUT………………CRAZY…. FOR SALE BUT WE WONT TELL YOU THE PRICE!
Those type of listings make me suspicious. Sometimes the asking price is so high that they won’t publish it. You have to contact the real estate to receive the “sticker shock”.
This is a 2008 photo.
for sale $400,000
1981 photo of the Ashland Theatre.
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1982 photo of the AAshland Theatre.
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This is another 1982 photo.
My buddy was interested in buying this place about 3 years ago, but when we inspected, we found that asbestos needs to be removed from the heating + cooling system. The seller refused to adjust his price to allow for the removal, so the deal fell through.
The interior lobby and bathrooms are in nice shape, but the projection area needs updating and there is no real concession area, due to there being a café adjoining the theater back when it was built.
Outside, on the eastern side of the theater, there are remnants of old washrooms, like the kind you see at gas stations, so the story about “colored only” bathrooms may be true.
It’s a great old theater, but it needs at least $50-100k to get it right, and that doesn’t include the asbestos removal.