Old South Theatre
299 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02108
299 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02108
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Does anyone know who owned the Old South of 1940-1950?
According to Donald C. King’s new book The Theatres of Boston: A Stage and Screen History, two different and unrelated theatres with this name have existed on approximately the same site.
The first Old South Theatre was built around 1908 “within the historic heavy brick walls of the eighteenth-century Province House”, on Washington Street opposite Milk Street. The Province House had contained several earlier theatres between 1852 and 1870 (Ordway Hall, Opera House, Lyceum) but had also repeatedly suffered fires, the latest completely gutting it in 1907.
The first Old South was built as a motion-picture house, then remodeled by Nathan Gordon in 1920 as a “first-run showcase”. It was demolished in May 1922. A new Province Theatre was supposed to replace it, but was never built.
The second Old South opened as the “Old South Newsreel Theatre” in September 1940, as part of a new office building. By 1945, it was one of several theatres “operating as first-run outlets for lesser quality films” from United Artists, Columbia, and foreign studios. It was converted to stores in 1950.
I’m pretty sure this building no longer stands and was replaced by the modern Boston Five (now Borders Books) building. So the status should be “Closed/Demolished”.
No theatre has ever been at this location since the Boston Five building was built, so the status should surely be “Closed/Demolished”. Another question is whether this theatre every showed movies, or was it only a live theatre?
The current building which is now the Borders store, and used to be the Boston Five, was built in 1973.
What is the latest year of city directory that lists a theatre here?
I don’t know about a theatre on that corner but I do know that it was a branch of The Boston Five Savings Bank. The name is still in the sidewalk and the vault is prominent in the bookstore.