Monroe Theatre
585 Monroe Avenue,
Rochester,
NY
14607
585 Monroe Avenue,
Rochester,
NY
14607
4 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 43 comments
Joshke, I sent you an email - please get in touch with me! ~ Karen
Mark, I’ve been working for the last 5 years to open up the Theater as a Comedy Theater. I’ve been inside several times and have put a lot of work into a business plan and funding. Hard to move, though, with an owner who’s not inclined to move on anything because of the tax breaks to his real estate company from vacancy. I can tell you that the original movie theater dimmers are still inside- they’re resistors with a handle for manually dimming the lights, installed long before anything like that was available in a home. I’ve done a lot of research on the Theater and can tell you anything you’d want to know.
Is it possible anyone is still alive that was involved in the operation of this theater? If anyone knows, would you PLEASE contact me with any information at all and let me know? I would sure appreciate it. Thanks, Mark
We want to open a comedy club!
Unfortunately the auditorium was demolished in 2008. So there is nothing there for anyone to reopen.
I drive past this place every day. Of course, it’s been closed nearly 10 years…but the marquee is still up. They should renovate it and reopen as a grindhouse theatre!
I was 7 yrs old in 1953 when “Oklahoma” first played here. My grandmother, who lived in an apartment over the theater took me for my birthday. First wide screen movie I ever saw. It was thrilling!
Photo added credit Len Laurro.
Saw my first porno at the Monroe – “Sensational Jeanine”. Man was she, uh, “sensational”! :–)
While I am sad to read that this place has been demolished, I am also not surprised. I lived around the corner from the Monroe Theatre in the mid-to-late 90’s (when it was Show World) and it was a sketchy place for sure. Got mugged once right out under the marquee! Lots of drug dealers and pimps around too. It was funny to watch respectable Pittsford-looking types ducking in to purchase porn on their lunch breaks. I never went inside even though I was curious about the interior. Would’ve loved to have seen this place in all it’s 70mm glory!
The Monroe lives on in the map photo. Thank you Googlemobile.
I was there on Saturday nite. The top white frieze? is beautiful and although it was misting out, I managed to snap a few pics of the rear and front. It was pretty cool. Parking is now behind the building.
Looks good, new windows and all throughout. Shame about the loss of the auditorium though.
To answer Don’s 11/08 question, demolition crews often start their demo in the middle of buildings that are being torn down. Even if surrounding structures are not to be saved.
It is a way in which to contain collateral damage, and it creates a bowl like staging area, in which to bulldoze fallen brick & materials into scoopable piles. It also eliminates “cave-ins”.
When saving partial buildings or surrounding structures is involved, it allows the crews to sort of shave off from the inside, what might otherwise undermine the structural integrity of everything else. By peeling away layers more delicately. It also prevents damage to the neighboring foundations.
Am I the only one who noticed the SNAFU store next door? How fitting for the X rated fare at the Monroe.
Extra credit for the “Dead Head” logo in the store’s window. (cue the rim shot) Doh!
They are definitely keeping the facade of the building. They cut off the auditorium, and they have now built a new cement block wall at the back end of what is left of the theater. The paint has all been stripped from the front now. Workers are currently working on the foundation for the Rite Aid drugstore.
One more reason to never return to Rochester
more pictures of the Monroe Theatre demolition (taken 9-20-08)
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Here is a live camera link to the front of the Monroe.
www.rocpic.com
Anybody know the status of the Waring?
Answer to Lost Memory: The auditorium is effectively gone. The front of the theatre and the rear-most part of the auditorium structure were saved for ultimate conversion to retail and/or housing and/or office space.
I intend to upload some pictures but “Cinema Treasures” is overhauling their site as I understand it and can’t at this time.
Thanks to tbear and Lost Memory for the postings – I will be posting the pics by this weekend.
I am devastated – within minutes of tbear’s posting, I went out (at night) to photograph the site.
The curved Cinerama screen with its purple curtain, the old stage (where kids competed for prizes at the Saturday matinees), the six track stereophonic speakers are all rubble now – the only thing that is not lost are the memories I have – which I will post later along with photos to my website.
Rochester needs theaters of this size and they tear them down for a Duane Reade that will only be torn down 10 years from now. How tragic.
As off 9/24/08 the rear 2/3 of the building (the auditorium portion) is being torn-down. Rochester has now succeeded in ridding itself of all its sizable movie theatres – what a shame! I’ll post some pictures at a later date.
I too went to Good Counsel and used to go to the Coronet on Friday nights in the summer, mostly to see Bonnie and Clyde and Bullit. It was torn down 2 or 3 years ago and now its just an empty lot.Louie’s and Paul’s are gone as is everyhting else of value in the 19th ward.
and sadly the theater will be torn down for a drug store – this is really heartbreaking since so many people in Rochester claim they need a 500-700 seat theater for performance –
Here is a link to the story and another photo of the building –
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