Maplewood Theatre
7170 Manchester Road,
Maplewood,
MO
63143
7170 Manchester Road,
Maplewood,
MO
63143
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There was originally a Maplewood Theatre located at 7320 Manchester Road. This later Maplewood Theatre opened in 1926 seating 1,079 as part of the Franchon & Marco chain, later taken over by the Arthur Theatres. The Maplewood Theatre was unique in that the lobby of the theatre was located in Maplewood and the auditorium because of the way it was situated was in the City of St. Louis. The entrance and lobby were on Manchester facing north but when you got into the theatre is was like a semi circle with the auditorium facing the east.
The Maplewood Theatre had a Art Deco front and had apartments built above and along side the entrance (a rather common thing in neighborhood theatres when it was built.) The auditorium was extremely wide with four aisles, two along the walls and two down the middle of the theatre. It had a rather large stage for a neighborhood theatre and occaisionally had stars appear to promote movies. The proscenium was draped with velvet drapes and the side walls were divided into squares with a tapestry material inside each square. Scone lighting adorned each side all square.
The Maplewood Theatre closed in 1979 and sat vacant until 1988 when it was demolished and the auditorium was made into a parking lot for the apartment building. The entrance and lobby was converted into retail.
Contributed by
Charles Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Lines for the Saturday Matinee at the Maplewood Theatre.
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Theatre opened in March 1925.
The last film exhibited in March 1979.
I remember visiting a theatre called the Maplewood in 1988 as it was being torn down. It was quite a large structure as I recall.
Based on what I remember from newspaper ads, the Maplewood was showing only foreign films in its final years. Never saw a movie there, but remember going car shopping with my Dad in that area one weekend and seeing the marquee, which read “Fine Foreign Films”.