This weblog post at Malls of American has a December 2, 1970, newspaper ad for the Bucks County Mall. It was located at the southeast corner of Bustleton Pike and Street Road. The Colonial Theatre was listed among the forty-odd businesses then at the mall, but the ad doesn’t call it a twin. I suspect that it might have opened as a single-screen house whenever the mall opened, probably sometime in the 1960s.
The long string of comments on the post include a few that mention the Colonial Theatre. It was closed by the early 1990s, according to one anonymous comment which has this to say about it at that time:
“And to the left of that gift store was the Colonial Theater – all closed up.
“The people that ran the gift store had keys to the Colonial Theater as it was used as a massive storage room then. I remember going in and it was like going back in time. Beautiful red plush seating and walls. Plush carpeting. The candy counter still stood with the hint of art deco decor. The rest of the theater was ruined as a main water pipe had burst due to lack of heat however it was still neat nonetheless!”
Several comments say that the once-enclosed mall has been rebuilt (or “…turned inside out….” as one commenter puts it.)
Current owners of the mall are Korman Commercial Properties, who have re-branded it as Bucks Crossing. From aerial views it looks like much of the original structure might still be there, but extensively altered to accommodate different sorts of tenants than the original mall had. The space the theater occupied might or might not still be there.
DocSouth’s Going to the Show lists the Cameo Theatre as operating from around 1925, but not at 180 SE Main. They list it at at 184 N. Main. City directories 1930 to 1958 consistently list the Cameo at 184 Main Street NW.
The modern address of the Booker T Theatre is 170 W. Thomas Street. Historic city directories consistently place the Savoy/Booker T Theatre at 130 W. Thomas, but the renovation of the area has apparently lead to renumbering of the lots.
This web site has information about the history of the buildings on the block and about the renovations. There are brief videos featuring before-and-after photos of both the Booker T and Manhattan Theatres.
This house is listed as the Savoy Theatre in the 1934 directory, and as the Booker T in the 1936 directory.
DocSouth lists the Grand Theatre at 238-240 Main Street SW from about 1914 to about 1920. Around 1920 it was renamed the Palace Theatre. It was still listed as the Palace in the 1930 city directory, but the 1934 directory lists it as the Carolina Theatre.
In this photo from Wisconsin History, the Strand Theatre building was being used as a newspaper office. The date is probably around 1970, judging from the cars in the photo.
The Strand operated at least into the 1930s. The January 18, 1931, issue of The Film Daily said that the house had been leased by W. L. Uglow, who intended to remodel and equip the theater with sound.
This page has a couple of photos of the Doty Theatre building after it had been converted into a tavern called the Doty Palm Garden. The text says this happened in the 1930s.
The building was built in 1912, and the Doty Theatre had an instrument called the Bartola, which was the predecessor of the Barton theater organ. The theater was in operation by June 26, 1912, the date on which, according to the January, 1913, issue of Insurance Engineering, the house suffered damage caused by movie film catching fire. No dollar figure was given for the loss, so it must have been minor.
By 1914, the Doty Theatre, operated by John H. Herziger, had competition in the form of the Idle Hour Theatre, operated by P. J. Droske. Both houses were mentioned in the January 3 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections has photos of the Neenah Theatre, but offers nothing resembling a working link, let alone a permalink, to any of them. Go to their web site and paste the following into the search box (with quotes included):
“Theaters—Wisconsin—Neenah”
Three of the five photos the search fetches will be of the Neenah Theatre. The caption of one photo showing the house under construction in 1902 says that the first performance at the house took place on December 26, 1902.
The Neenah Theatre was listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 908 seats and a stage 37x60 feet.
This weblog post from Preserving York has a pre-1915 postcard view of the York Opera House and Auditorium, which were actually two distinct theaters. The text says that they were located on the east side of South Beaver Street, between West Mason Street and West King Street, and a comment says that they were on the site of the York Telephone and Telegraph Building. The telephone company apparently occupied two buildings: an Art Deco structure on the corner of Mason Street and a Colonial Revival building next door to the south.
I’ve set Street View to replicate as near as possible the vantage point of the early postcard view. A couple of small buildings intervened between the Auditorium and Mason Street, so the Auditorium occupied the southernmost part of the parcel the telephone company’s Art Deco building now occupies. The Opera House must have been entirely on a portion of the site of the Colonial Revival building. The passageway between the two theaters must have been about where the entrance and first bay of windows in the Colonial Revival building are now.
An item in the May 1, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News reveals that the two theaters were still standing at that time, but the Auditorium had apparently been renamed the Orpheum Theatre. The theaters had just been purchased by Nathan Appell, who intended to demolish them and replace them with a new theater, but that project was obviously never carried out:
“The historic York Opera House and the
Orpheum Theatre adjoining, in the heart of the business section of York, Pa., are to become the site of a new theatre that will have a seating capacity of 3,000 and the construction of which will be started next spring. The announcement of the enterprise was made on April 13 by Nathan Appell, head of the Nathan Appell Theatre Enterprises, which controls a number of motion picture, vaudeville and legitimate theatres in York, Lancaster and elsewhere in Pennsylvania.”
The York Preservation post also says that the Opera House was designed by the Dempwolf family. John August Dempwolf began his practice in York around 1880, so the Opera House must have been one of his first projects. I’m not sure when his brother Reinhardt joined the firm.
The address of the York Telephone and Telegraph Building I found on the Internet is 31 S. Beaver Street, but the theater addresses were a bit higher. I found a historic address of 33-35 S. Beaver for the Orpheum, so the Opera House must have been somewhere between 37 and 41.
The May 1, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had an item about the purchase of the York Opera House and the Orpheum Theatre at York by Nathan and Louis Appell. Appended to the end of the item was this paragraph about the Jackson Theatre:
“The Jackson Motion Picture Theatre, York, Pa., went under the control of the Nathan Appell Theatre Enterprises on Monday, April 19, the deed for the sale of the property for $205,000 having passed from Mr. and Mrs. John A. Jackson, of York, to Nathan and Louis Appell in April.”
I have found that R. C.Jackson died in 1910, after which time the operation of R. C. Jackson & Co. was carried on by his sons.
The September 24, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had an article about the openings of the Mark-Capitol Theatre in Everett and the Quincy-Strand Theatre in Quincy. Here are the parts about the Capitol:
“THE Stanley-Mark Strand interests have opened two new theatres in Massachusetts, the Quincy-Strand at Quincy and the Mark-Capitol at Everett. The former seats about 1,800 and the latter 2,300, thus adding 4,100 seats to the Stanley-Mark interests within a week.
…
“Opening of the Mark-Capitol, Everett, was more elaborate, with remarks by Mayor Lester B. Chisholm and officials and by officers of the corporation. Moe Mark personally supervised the finishing touches to the completion of the theatre.
“As in the case of the Quincy house, the Everett playhouse is simply but richly furnished. The orchestra seats 1,600 and the single balcony 700 more. The projection room is beneath the front centre of the balcony and on a level with the screen and is equipped with Simplex projectors, spots, stereopticon, etc.
“The playhouse is a combination of Egyptian and Roman architecture and the corridors, lobby, etc., are of ample capacity to handle capacity audiences. Both theatres are heavily carpeted. The seats are by the American Seating Co. and an Austin organ is used. A ten-piece orchestra is also used. The policy is straight pictures, with changes of program Mondays and Fridays. The theatre is on Broadway at the upper end of Everett Square, with streets on both sides and parking space is provided for 200 autos in charge of a theatre attendant and without charge to the patrons.
“Erection of the playhouse was under the supervision of Moe Silva, personal representative of Moe Mark in New England, and Allen B. Newhall. Roy Eraser, who was an assistant to Mr. Newhall at Lynn, Mass., is house manager. The ushers were uniformed in tuxedo effects and were carefully trained for their work. The theatre represents a cost of about $300,000.
“One of the most unusual features of the policy is the scale of prices, all seats being 20 cents for matinees and 25 and 30 cents for the evening shows.
“The personnel of the theatre is : President, Moe Mark; treasurer, Joseph M. Levenson; assistant treasurer, Moe Silva; directors, the officers and Max L. Levenson, Nathan Sallinger, Samuel Waxman, Morris Sharaf and Allen B. Newhall. Messrs. Newhall and Silva will have personal supervision of the theatre.
“Both theatres are equipped with ample stages so that full stage productions or vaudeville may be presented at any time. Roth houses have eleven exits and both are of first class construction.”
The September 24, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had this item:
“Fred B. Murphy has named his new theatre at Chestnut and Maple streets, Quincy, the Quincy-Strand. Orders have been placed for his marquee and electric sign and the opening will be within the next three to four weeks.”
The September 11 issue of the same publication ran this update:
“Fred S. Murphy’s new theatre in Quincy, Mass., opens for the first time on Labor Day with a program of pictures and vaudeville. It seats approximately 1,500.”
The September 25 issue carried a longer article about the openings of the Quincy-Strand and the Mark-Capitol Theatre at Everett, Massachusetts. Here is the portion dealing with the Quincy-Strand:
“THE Stanley-Mark Strand interests have opened two new theatres in Massachusetts, the Quincy-Strand at Quincy and the Mark-Capitol at Everett. The former seats about 1,800 and the latter 2,300, thus adding 4,100 seats to the Stanley-Mark interests within a week.
“The Quincy-Strand was erected by ex-Mayor William A. Bradford and leased for a long term of years to the Quincy-Mark Strand Co., of which Fred B. Murphy, who is active manager of the house, is president; Joseph B. Levenson is treasurer and Morris Sharaf, vice-president. The theatre is located at Hancock and Chestnut streets, Quincy Square. The American Seating Co. did the seating, a Wurlitzer organ is installed. Simplex projection machines are used and Ray Stewartson’s Broadcasting orchestra supplies the musical numbers. The house is of first-class construction throughout, seating 1,000 on the floor and 800 in the single balcony.
“There was no formal opening of the new theatre and a ten-year-old boy, Edward Pearlin, of Quincy, who stood in line six hours and went without his supper, had the honor of getting the first ticket. There were no speeches and the management’s announcements were made on the screen. The policy is straight pictures, continuous performance from 1.30 to 10.30 p.m. daily.
“Both theatres are equipped with ample stages so that full stage productions or vaudeville may be presented at any time. Roth houses have eleven exits and both are of first class construction.”
Although the article doesn’t give the opening dates for either theater, this comment by barrygoodkin on our page for the Capitol Theatre in Everett cites a reliable source for the opening of that house on September 6, 1926, so they both opened on the same day.
This PDF contains an oral history interview with Fred O. Wilcox, who tells (among other things) that his father, John T. Wilcox, bought the Gray Opera House in 1930 and converted it into a warehouse and packing plant for his pea seed company.
The April 13, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World mentioned the Alhambra Theatre in Campbellsville, Kentucky. The house had just been leased to Rowland Clark, operator of the Arista Theatre in the nearby town of Lebanon.
Here is the opening announcement for the Seltzer Theatre at Palmyra from the December 31, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News:
“The formal opening of the Seltzer theatre, Palmyra, was scheduled for New Year’s Eve, December 31st. The house is a modern structure with 900 seating capacity, and owned by Harry Seltzer. Geo. Girth, who formerly managed the Iroquois theatre, Palmyra, which has been closed and will be dismantled, has been appointed manager of the Seltzer.”
I’ve found the Iroquois Theatre mentioned as early as 1912, but haven’t found any details about it.
The Jackson Theatre was the subject of this brief item in the September 1, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“York, Pa. — The Jackson theater here is reported to be prepared for their opening during the early part of September. The theater is of the 1,000-seat variety, handsomely furnished and of the best construction. R. C. Jackson & Co., of Lebanon, Pa., who are the owners of this house, also control a chain of theaters in this vicinity.”
R. C. Jackson was listed as the manager of a 400-seat movie house called the New Jackson Theatre operating at York in 1909. It was the only house in York that was on a list of movie houses in the January 16, 1909,issue of The Billboard. This makes me suspect that the New Jackson of 1909 was the Theatorium of 1908 renamed. If it was also the same house as the Jackson of 1917, the rebuilding must have been extensive for it to have gone from 400 seats to over 800.
R. C. Jackson & Co. also operated houses called the Theatorium and the Jackson in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (both in operation in the early 1920s.) R. C. Jackson & Son were listed as managers of the Alvin Theatre in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in various issues of The Billboard in 1907.
The Arista Theatre at Lebanon, Kentucky, was mentioned in the April 13, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. The Arista’s operator, Rowland Clark, had just leased the Alhambra Theatre in nearby Campbellsville.
This photo of the auditorium of the Granada Theatre was published in the November 1, 1930, issue of the American trade journal Motion Picture News. It was one of several photos illustrating an article on Spanish and Moorish architecture that begins on this page of the magazine, which features another, smaller, photo of the theater.
The first image in the photos on this web page from the East Liverpool Historical Society shows the original American Theatre as it appeared in 1914. It is followed by a photo of the second American Theatre.
Another page from the Historical Society features four photos of the destruction of the first American Theatre by fire on May 24, 1950.
The August 11, 1937, issue of The Film Daily had this announcement of the reopening of the Columbia Theatre in East Liverpool:
“East Liverpool, O. — The Columbia theater, pioneer movie house of the upper Ohio valley has been reopened after complete modernization. The house had been dark for two weeks to permit improvements estimated to have cost $15,000. Improvements included increased seating, installation of new ventilating and lighting, new sound screen, acoustical treatment and redecoration of the auditorium, new rest rooms, recarpeting and modernizing of sound and booth equipment. Sam M. Reichblum, president of the Reichblum Theaters Inc., operating this and several houses in the tri-state area, has announced the theater here will be headquarters for the group.”
Two photos of the Columbia Theatre appear about two thirds of the way down this web page provided by the East Liverpool Historical Society.
This brief item from The Moving Picture World of July 29, 1916, reveals that this house was called the St. Andrews Theatre both before and after it was called the Favorite Theatre: “LOS ANGELES, CAL—The St. Andrews theater at 1873 West Jefferson street is now being conducted by F. B. Hanawalt.”
The September 27, 1932, issue of The Film Daily said that the projected opening date of the John Eberson-designed theater being built for Warner Bros. at Washington, Pennsylvania, was January 15.
After forty years in a private dwelling, the State Theatre’s Wurlitzer organ was installed in the ballroom of Baltimore’s Garrett-Jacobs mansion in 2012. Donated by former owner Ray Wagner with the stipulation that the instrument be available for public performances, the organ is now used for concerts and to accompany silent films about once a month (see the “Events” link on the organ page.)
Now owned by the Engineering Society of Baltimore, The Garrett-Jacobs mansion is also the home of an artists-in-residence program for four musical groups. The ballroom, 30x70 feet, was adapted from existing space in the early 20th century, and was designed by noted architect John Russell Pope. The room has been mostly restored, with only the ceiling coffers and surrounds remaining to be dome. The restoration and refurbishment was handled by Henry Johnson of Johnson/Berman Architecture and Interior Design.
The Uptown Cinema history page lostmemory linked to on December 3, 2007, has gone missing, but this might be the same page at a new url. Updated as of October 16, 2013, it now says that the theater has been closed for about two years. The theater’s Facebook page was last updated on February 12, 2012, and the page now carries the notation “Permanently Closed.”
The theater is currently listed for sale by Lakeshore Realtors at $199,000.
Back in 1916, Frost had two movie theaters. E. E. Belcia’s article “Touring Texas Small Towns” in the September 30 issue of The Moving Picture World had this paragraph about Frost:
“I next visited the little town of Frost. This is a dandy little show town, probably due to the fact that at one time W. M. Byrd and his brother were exhibitors there. M. C. Connor and his brother own the old Byrd Theatre and also a theatre in Dawson. They run an up-to-date show in both places. L. Morphew is also an exhibitor in Frost, having only recently opened the Lyric there.”
Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find any other mentions of either the Byrd or Lyric in the trade journals, and none of the Frost Theatre.
This weblog post at Malls of American has a December 2, 1970, newspaper ad for the Bucks County Mall. It was located at the southeast corner of Bustleton Pike and Street Road. The Colonial Theatre was listed among the forty-odd businesses then at the mall, but the ad doesn’t call it a twin. I suspect that it might have opened as a single-screen house whenever the mall opened, probably sometime in the 1960s.
The long string of comments on the post include a few that mention the Colonial Theatre. It was closed by the early 1990s, according to one anonymous comment which has this to say about it at that time:
Several comments say that the once-enclosed mall has been rebuilt (or “…turned inside out….” as one commenter puts it.)Current owners of the mall are Korman Commercial Properties, who have re-branded it as Bucks Crossing. From aerial views it looks like much of the original structure might still be there, but extensively altered to accommodate different sorts of tenants than the original mall had. The space the theater occupied might or might not still be there.
DocSouth’s Going to the Show lists the Cameo Theatre as operating from around 1925, but not at 180 SE Main. They list it at at 184 N. Main. City directories 1930 to 1958 consistently list the Cameo at 184 Main Street NW.
The modern address of the Booker T Theatre is 170 W. Thomas Street. Historic city directories consistently place the Savoy/Booker T Theatre at 130 W. Thomas, but the renovation of the area has apparently lead to renumbering of the lots.
This web site has information about the history of the buildings on the block and about the renovations. There are brief videos featuring before-and-after photos of both the Booker T and Manhattan Theatres.
This house is listed as the Savoy Theatre in the 1934 directory, and as the Booker T in the 1936 directory.
DocSouth lists the Grand Theatre at 238-240 Main Street SW from about 1914 to about 1920. Around 1920 it was renamed the Palace Theatre. It was still listed as the Palace in the 1930 city directory, but the 1934 directory lists it as the Carolina Theatre.
In this photo from Wisconsin History, the Strand Theatre building was being used as a newspaper office. The date is probably around 1970, judging from the cars in the photo.
The Strand operated at least into the 1930s. The January 18, 1931, issue of The Film Daily said that the house had been leased by W. L. Uglow, who intended to remodel and equip the theater with sound.
This page has a couple of photos of the Doty Theatre building after it had been converted into a tavern called the Doty Palm Garden. The text says this happened in the 1930s.
The building was built in 1912, and the Doty Theatre had an instrument called the Bartola, which was the predecessor of the Barton theater organ. The theater was in operation by June 26, 1912, the date on which, according to the January, 1913, issue of Insurance Engineering, the house suffered damage caused by movie film catching fire. No dollar figure was given for the loss, so it must have been minor.
By 1914, the Doty Theatre, operated by John H. Herziger, had competition in the form of the Idle Hour Theatre, operated by P. J. Droske. Both houses were mentioned in the January 3 issue of The Moving Picture World.
The University of Wisconsin Digital Collections has photos of the Neenah Theatre, but offers nothing resembling a working link, let alone a permalink, to any of them. Go to their web site and paste the following into the search box (with quotes included):
“Theaters—Wisconsin—Neenah”
Three of the five photos the search fetches will be of the Neenah Theatre. The caption of one photo showing the house under construction in 1902 says that the first performance at the house took place on December 26, 1902.
The Neenah Theatre was listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 908 seats and a stage 37x60 feet.
This weblog post from Preserving York has a pre-1915 postcard view of the York Opera House and Auditorium, which were actually two distinct theaters. The text says that they were located on the east side of South Beaver Street, between West Mason Street and West King Street, and a comment says that they were on the site of the York Telephone and Telegraph Building. The telephone company apparently occupied two buildings: an Art Deco structure on the corner of Mason Street and a Colonial Revival building next door to the south.
I’ve set Street View to replicate as near as possible the vantage point of the early postcard view. A couple of small buildings intervened between the Auditorium and Mason Street, so the Auditorium occupied the southernmost part of the parcel the telephone company’s Art Deco building now occupies. The Opera House must have been entirely on a portion of the site of the Colonial Revival building. The passageway between the two theaters must have been about where the entrance and first bay of windows in the Colonial Revival building are now.
An item in the May 1, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News reveals that the two theaters were still standing at that time, but the Auditorium had apparently been renamed the Orpheum Theatre. The theaters had just been purchased by Nathan Appell, who intended to demolish them and replace them with a new theater, but that project was obviously never carried out:
The York Preservation post also says that the Opera House was designed by the Dempwolf family. John August Dempwolf began his practice in York around 1880, so the Opera House must have been one of his first projects. I’m not sure when his brother Reinhardt joined the firm.The address of the York Telephone and Telegraph Building I found on the Internet is 31 S. Beaver Street, but the theater addresses were a bit higher. I found a historic address of 33-35 S. Beaver for the Orpheum, so the Opera House must have been somewhere between 37 and 41.
The May 1, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had an item about the purchase of the York Opera House and the Orpheum Theatre at York by Nathan and Louis Appell. Appended to the end of the item was this paragraph about the Jackson Theatre:
I have found that R. C.Jackson died in 1910, after which time the operation of R. C. Jackson & Co. was carried on by his sons.The September 24, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had an article about the openings of the Mark-Capitol Theatre in Everett and the Quincy-Strand Theatre in Quincy. Here are the parts about the Capitol:
The September 24, 1926, issue of Motion Picture News had this item:
The September 11 issue of the same publication ran this update:The September 25 issue carried a longer article about the openings of the Quincy-Strand and the Mark-Capitol Theatre at Everett, Massachusetts. Here is the portion dealing with the Quincy-Strand:Although the article doesn’t give the opening dates for either theater, this comment by barrygoodkin on our page for the Capitol Theatre in Everett cites a reliable source for the opening of that house on September 6, 1926, so they both opened on the same day.This PDF contains an oral history interview with Fred O. Wilcox, who tells (among other things) that his father, John T. Wilcox, bought the Gray Opera House in 1930 and converted it into a warehouse and packing plant for his pea seed company.
The April 13, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World mentioned the Alhambra Theatre in Campbellsville, Kentucky. The house had just been leased to Rowland Clark, operator of the Arista Theatre in the nearby town of Lebanon.
Here is the opening announcement for the Seltzer Theatre at Palmyra from the December 31, 1927, issue of Motion Picture News:
I’ve found the Iroquois Theatre mentioned as early as 1912, but haven’t found any details about it.The Jackson Theatre was the subject of this brief item in the September 1, 1917, issue of The Moving Picture World:
R. C. Jackson was listed as the manager of a 400-seat movie house called the New Jackson Theatre operating at York in 1909. It was the only house in York that was on a list of movie houses in the January 16, 1909,issue of The Billboard. This makes me suspect that the New Jackson of 1909 was the Theatorium of 1908 renamed. If it was also the same house as the Jackson of 1917, the rebuilding must have been extensive for it to have gone from 400 seats to over 800.R. C. Jackson & Co. also operated houses called the Theatorium and the Jackson in Lebanon, Pennsylvania (both in operation in the early 1920s.) R. C. Jackson & Son were listed as managers of the Alvin Theatre in Columbia, Pennsylvania, in various issues of The Billboard in 1907.
The Arista Theatre at Lebanon, Kentucky, was mentioned in the April 13, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World. The Arista’s operator, Rowland Clark, had just leased the Alhambra Theatre in nearby Campbellsville.
This photo of the auditorium of the Granada Theatre was published in the November 1, 1930, issue of the American trade journal Motion Picture News. It was one of several photos illustrating an article on Spanish and Moorish architecture that begins on this page of the magazine, which features another, smaller, photo of the theater.
Three exterior photos of the Strand/State appear about halfway down this web page provided by the East Liverpool Historical Society.
The first image in the photos on this web page from the East Liverpool Historical Society shows the original American Theatre as it appeared in 1914. It is followed by a photo of the second American Theatre.
Another page from the Historical Society features four photos of the destruction of the first American Theatre by fire on May 24, 1950.
The August 11, 1937, issue of The Film Daily had this announcement of the reopening of the Columbia Theatre in East Liverpool:
Two photos of the Columbia Theatre appear about two thirds of the way down this web page provided by the East Liverpool Historical Society.This brief item from The Moving Picture World of July 29, 1916, reveals that this house was called the St. Andrews Theatre both before and after it was called the Favorite Theatre: “LOS ANGELES, CAL—The St. Andrews theater at 1873 West Jefferson street is now being conducted by F. B. Hanawalt.”
The September 27, 1932, issue of The Film Daily said that the projected opening date of the John Eberson-designed theater being built for Warner Bros. at Washington, Pennsylvania, was January 15.
After forty years in a private dwelling, the State Theatre’s Wurlitzer organ was installed in the ballroom of Baltimore’s Garrett-Jacobs mansion in 2012. Donated by former owner Ray Wagner with the stipulation that the instrument be available for public performances, the organ is now used for concerts and to accompany silent films about once a month (see the “Events” link on the organ page.)
Now owned by the Engineering Society of Baltimore, The Garrett-Jacobs mansion is also the home of an artists-in-residence program for four musical groups. The ballroom, 30x70 feet, was adapted from existing space in the early 20th century, and was designed by noted architect John Russell Pope. The room has been mostly restored, with only the ceiling coffers and surrounds remaining to be dome. The restoration and refurbishment was handled by Henry Johnson of Johnson/Berman Architecture and Interior Design.
The Uptown Cinema history page lostmemory linked to on December 3, 2007, has gone missing, but this might be the same page at a new url. Updated as of October 16, 2013, it now says that the theater has been closed for about two years. The theater’s Facebook page was last updated on February 12, 2012, and the page now carries the notation “Permanently Closed.”
The theater is currently listed for sale by Lakeshore Realtors at $199,000.
Back in 1916, Frost had two movie theaters. E. E. Belcia’s article “Touring Texas Small Towns” in the September 30 issue of The Moving Picture World had this paragraph about Frost:
Unfortunately, I’ve been unable to find any other mentions of either the Byrd or Lyric in the trade journals, and none of the Frost Theatre.