Boulevard Theatre demolished over the weekend

posted by philbertgray on May 7, 2009 at 9:55 am

SALISBURY, MD — The Boulevard Theatre in downtown Salisbury suffered an ignoble ending over the weekend as a wrecking crew demolished the theatre building in its entirety. Like many of the theatres of its time it eventually attempted to remain viable by dividing the original auditorium into several smaller ones.

There seems to be little history available on the theatre other than it opened in 1948. Its interior was described as art deco and seated approximately 700. The seating and some art deco glass blocks were saved prior to the demolition.

The last incarnation of the Boulevard was as the Movies 6. It was managed by Regal Cinemas chain until the 1990s when they donated the building to the Salisbury Wicomico Arts Council. The group planned to turn the theatre into a performing arts center but failed to raise funding for the project and eventually sold the building for $201,000.

Current owner David Moore said he regretted the loss of the building but nearly a decade of closure had left the building in such disrepair that it had to be demolished

An article on the demolition can be found at the WMDTV website and the WMBO16 website.

A photographer at the SBYNEWS website extensively documented the demolition at the following three pages of its blogspot.

http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/05/boulevard-theater-part-i.html
http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/05/boulevard-theater-part-ii.html
http://sbynews.blogspot.com/2009/05/boulevard-theater-part-iii.html

Theaters in this post

• Movies 6