Wakefield Theatre

Hello everyone, my name is Deouan Wilson and I am a member of Greater Faith Temple which now resides at The Wakefield Theatre. I am a part of our Performance Department and we will be putting on a theatrical production titled, THE WORD on December 1st, 2007. We would like to pay homage to the theatre and invite anyone who remembers the “glory days” when the venue showed motion pictures, hosted boxing matches, etc. So if anyone out there has any pictures, articles or anything interesting about The Wakefield, please contact me at Thanks!

Here is a circa 1969 photo of the Wakefield Theater.

Listed at 4212 White Plains Road in the 1960 yellow pages. Phone number was FAirbnks 4-0400.

The Wakefield was the biggest and best of the Bronx/Yonkers borderland neighborhood movie houses — including the Kent, the Kimball, the Craft, and the Laconia — that I explored during my high school years (1947-1951). The Wakefield often showed “first run” flicks a little before the others, and was not as gringy as some. The Saturday walk from my home in Woodlawn, across the 233rd Street Bridge and up the hill, is still remembered fondly.

This web page has a description of the Welte Orchestral Unit organ that was built for the Wakefield Theatre. The organ was temporarily on display at the Exposition of Architecture and Allied Arts held at the Grand Central Palace in Manhattan in early 1927.