Islip Theater
410 W. Main Street,
Islip,
NY
11751
410 W. Main Street,
Islip,
NY
11751
3 people
favorited this theater
A surviving downtown theater from around 1946. At some point the Islip Theatre was triplexed.
The Islip Theatre’s colorful old neon marquee continued to welcome moviegoers until 2006. In January 2013, the theatre is undergoing a renovation, and is due to reopen in mid-May 2013.
Contributed by
Bway Chris
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Recent comments (view all 197 comments)
Too bad that the theatre burnt down. I wonder if the owner/renter of the place did that to collect insurance. That often happens.
Don’t think that was the case since he was supposed to be a person with standards and values. Incidentally, your response appeared twice, no doubt as a result of all the trouble the site has been having for the past few days. I was surprised that mine made it since it crashed before I had a confirm that it was successfully added. Here’s a chance to use a new capability of CT. When you, and only you, look at your comments you see the word “remove”. You, and only you can remove it. So you can now remove the duplicate. I have tried to do that on a couple of my past postings as well as removing ones which were no longer applicable e.g., the Google map is off.
I was speaking to a representative of the Historical Society. The problem with reinventing the Islip is a sewage problem under the building, of unknown origin. Among the negatives we have the smell. Also, the cost of remediation is purported to be in the millions which is in excess of the value of the property. The likihood of bucks being available to do the remediation and get the theatre up to snuff is unlikely. There have been a lot of people in the community ready to volunteer for or at the theatre but no dollars.
robboehm: The reason I mentioned the possibility of somebody burning the building down himself in order to collect insurance is because that happens pretty often, and, secondly, who really knows what a person with standards and values can and/or will do if they become desperate enough.
If a sewage problem under the building has been what’s been preventing the renovation of the Islip Theatre all along, that’s unfortunate, and it sounds like an impossibility, in this case. Sorry to hear that. If people are willing to volunteer, but there’s no money m coming in, due to what it would cost to remedy the sewage problem under the building, that, too, is unfortunate.
Thanks for all the info, robboehm, and, sorry that such a cherished theatre has to go.
And, remember, it was triplexed at some point. Who knows what the interior looks like. There is also a question as to whether it was ever airconditioned. There is no real parking lot at the theatre but quite a lot on Main Street and the side streets. There is also the parking lot at the Old Town Hall, across the street which is often available in the evening.
It is still a triplex but when the last people wanted it to be some kind of multi- use they took the seats out of theatre 1 for live shows dance and party area..
2 has seats also balcony in best shape, they did a few plays there..New ac but, how it was explained to me was to get water from the underground stream and pulled up sand instead made a big mess in # 2…As far as the historical society…I don’t think they really care about the theatre…I go to the Islip street fair every year and when i ask them what are you doing to save the Islip? the guy said “there are many other theatres people can go to”..The small mom and pops around the town want the theatre….
ps i don’t know what i het to get red and large
Wally: What you hit to make it big and red was the # key. Cinema Treasures is now supporting Markdown code as well as standard HTML in its comment forms. In Markdown code, the # (hash sign) placed at the beginning of a paragraph will turn the block of text following it large. I don’t see the HTML command for changing font color in the page’s source code, though, so I don’t know why it’s turning red.
If you avoid starting paragraphs with a hash sign, this won’t happen again. Hash signs are OK anywhere else in your text. Even placing a single dash in front of the hash sign when you want to use it at the beginning of a paragraph will prevent the auto-formatting program from reading the sign as Markdown code:
–# No large red type here.
I loved islip it was always reasonable and close, I pass by it all the time, and i remember seeing 40 year old virgin there and a bunch of others, sad to see it sitting vacant, deteriorating.
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/towns/islip-theater-gets-remake-to-reopen-mid-march-1.4537207