Tropic Theatre
122 W. Main Street,
Leesburg,
FL
34748
122 W. Main Street,
Leesburg,
FL
34748
1 person
favorited this theater
The 500-seat Fain Theatre was originally built in 1932 as the B-movie house in Leesurg. In 1960 it went through in extensive renovation to the plans of Rufus E. Bland, and was renamed the Tropic Theatre. In 1979 it was added onto and became the Tropic Twin Theatre. It continued to show first run movies until the mid-1980’s. It then changed hands several times and was finally closed in June 2004.
Garner/Rojas Properties has now purchased it and restoration and renovations have started. The original side will be restored to the 1936-era while the other side will be renovated to a state of the art movie and performing arts theatre.
Terry Hicks bought the theatre in 2006 and renovated it. The redone auditorium will house the new Leesburg’s childrens theatre, ‘Tropic Troup’. The auditorium was stripped back to its brick walls. The floors were discovered to be red oak. There are also two dance studios.
The Tropic Theatre reopened as a 238-seat movie theatre at a special midnight screening of “Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn” on November 10, 2011.
Contributed by
Kristi Boliek
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Recent comments (view all 22 comments)
Same photo, new link.
In 1973, after moving to Leesburg, I went to work at the Tropic. She was a grand old lady but spooky. ON a Sunda, while getting things set up, I was in the new side projection room. Out of the corner of my eye, i saw someone in a checkered shirt walk by to get to the old side. I thought it was my coworker. I heard the front door banging, so I went downstairs and it was my coworker. I asked him how he got locked out. He sai he just got there. I told him I sa him going to the old side. We both walked to the old side projection room. The machines were threaded and in the corner of the room was the checkered shirt I saw. That same night, while cleaning up in the old 1936 theater, I looked up and saw the lights on in the projection room. I dont know how they were on because you turned off everything at the circuit board. After cleaning up, my coworker and I heard someone walking towards the stairs. The lights upstairs turned on and we heard the stairs creak like someone was coming down. We shut the door and left the building. As we drove away, I looked back and saw the door to the upstairs slowly open but no one was there. It still makes my hair stand up thinking about it.
1988 Photo
Another 1988 photo is here.
The architect for the 1960 remodeling of the Fain Theatre into the Tropic, which was quite extensive, was Rufus E. Bland. Bland was the long-time in-house architect for the Martin circuit, and MCM, the company that operated the Tropic, was a partnership that included members of the Martin family. The remodeled theater had 450 seats, according to an article in Boxoffice of April 3, 1961, which was accompanied by three small photos of the house.
Here are my pictures from August 2010.
A photo of the the Fain Theatre before becoming the Tropic in Leesburg.
All the pictures were nice,nice story Steve.I too,worked in an old theatre,always strange sounds,but no ghosts.No such thing.It is all in the mind.
The original architect of the Fain Theatre was Roy A. Benjamin. Here is the announcement of the opening from the January 24, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
Grand opening of the Tropic described in this 1961 trade article: Boxoffice