Loew's Crescent Theatre
511 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37219
511 Church Street,
Nashville,
TN
37219
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Showing 26 - 37 of 37 comments
Saw a photo of the Vertical sign of the 1st Princess Theatre last night on NPT Channel 8,they also had photos of many Nashville theatres and drive-ins.
The site now is a parking lot, but I have heard that more high-rise condos are to be built there.
The 1937 photo is the first Princess,the 2nd. Princess was at 415 Church Street later name the Crescent and then Loews Crescent untill 1981???
Sorry to learn that this Princess in Nashville and one in Memphis were demolished yet the Princess in Harriman is being restored by a local actor!
Never heard of such a thing! At National Hills and the IMPERIAL the carbon rods went in the trash. I will have to mention that to Nick,He has a close friend that ran movies in Tampa for decades.
The Crescent did have Cinerama for a short while I worked there in the late 70,s. The booth had 3 windows but were not used at that time. We even ran 20 minute reels until we got the hour reels 3 reels on-one we still used the carbon arc projectors we had to keep the stubs of the rods to be recycled.LOEWS was very strict about this it must have been a major expence.Many great times in this house.
The new Princess became the Crescent about 1959 it was a cinerama house for a short while. After the Loews Vendome burned Loews got the lease on the Crescent making it the Loews Crescent,830 seats 415 a side.
The old Princess at 511 Church Street was built in 1917 and was a vaudeville theater that eventually changed over to exclusively movies in the 1930’s. As mentioned above, the Cain-Sloan department store was built on the site of the old Princess and the new Princess was built one block to the east at 415 Church street in 1949. According to the local newspaper, in December 1959, the theater closed for a few weeks for installation of 70mm projection / stereophonic equipment and re-opened as the Crescent on Christmas Day 1959 with an extended run of The Big Fisherman. This was followed by other long-runs in 1960 including Ben Hur and Spartacus.
Three panel Cinerama began in 1961 and 70mm Cinerama began in 1964 with It'a A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Around 1967 or 1968, Cinerama moved to the Belle Meade Theater when Loews took over the Crescent from Martin Theaters.
Here is a photo of the Crescent circa 1976.
You are right Danny. A photographer and I once considered doing a book based on hidden interiors in old buidings in downtoen Nashville. In the 1960s and 1970s many of these buildings were boarded up above the ground floor, with only the ground floor rented out for commercial space. Above the abandoned floors were sealed off in time. But we waited to long and many of the buildings are now destroyed or renovated.
One of my biggest regrets was not doing photgraphs at the old SuperX drug store on 6th Ave. Opened in the late 1960s I think, it was carved out of the old Knickerbocker. Above the false ceiling the upper reaches of the theater stood untouched, unloved and no longer remembered.
A fire destroyed the building a few years ago.
The Church Street of my childhood is mostly just a memory now. The Veridian, a 31-story high-rise commercial/residential skyscraper is being constructed on the site of the old Princess/Crescent Theatres, slap up against our first skyscraper, the L&C Tower at the corner of 4th & Church. It’s wonderful to see downtown Nashville waking up and coming alive once more, but it’s mostly happening at the cost of losing old, charming architecture. I shudder to think what will become of those wonderful, neglected, sad little architectural gems on Capitol Blvd. across from the Castner-Knott Bldg. If only I was rich!
The Princess was initially part of the Crescent Theatre chain. In 1951 the Cain-Sloan department store acquired the property at 511 Church and the theatre reopened at 415 Church St. In 1959, the Princess was remodeled and renamed the Crescent Cinerama. The theatre was equipped with a 45-foot screen and stereophonic sound. After the theatre became part of the Loews chain in the 1960s, it’s name was gradually shorten from being the Loews Crescent Cinerama to just the Loews. The Loews was demolished in 1994.