A permit for the Broadway Theatre was issued in 1918. The theater was designed by Carneal & Johnston, and commissioned by A. L. Strauss. The contractor was the J. T. Wilson Company.
A permit for a “New Theatre” for Mr. B. Bear was issued in 1914. The location given is the north side of Broad Street between 2nd and 3rd. The architect of record was William C. West, but a drawing of the house exists labeled “New Theatre for Mr. M. F. Hofheimer, Richmond Va., Designed by Atlantic Terra Cotta Company, 1170 Broadway New York.” It is presumed that Bear obtained the drawing from Hofheimer after the latter abandoned the project, and had West design the rest of the building.
A permit for the Hippodrome Theatre at 530 N. Second Street was issued by the City of Richmond in 1912. The architect for the project was Charles H. Fisher of Fisher & Rabenstein, Architects. The project was commissioned by Mrs. A. E. Thorp.
The history section of the Hippodrome’s official web site says that the house opened in 1904. If that’s the case, then the 1912 permit must have been for alterations to the theater.
A permit was issued in 1910 for a theater located on Broad Street between Jefferson and Brook Avenue, but the name on the permit was Star Theatre. Still, it was being built for M. L. Hofheimer, who was the original owner of the Empire Theatre. The project was designed by C. K. Howell of the firm of Scarborough & Howell, Engineers & Architects.
Howell also designed the smaller movie theater next door, now the Walker Theatre, for Hofheimer the following year. It is very likely that the 1910 Star Theatre project was the house that opened in 1911 as the Empire.
The permit to build this theater was issued to M. L. Hofheimer. The architect for the project was C. K. Howell, and the contractor was A. C. Houston. A description of Howell’s drawings says that the “…facade features Corinthian columns, masks and garlands, and statuary.” The modern photos linked earlier show that quite a bit of this decoration survived into recent times.
The Temple Theatre was an impressive structure, as seen in this vintage postcard. It was built by impresario James H. Moore, who chose the Rochester firm of Leon H. Lempert & Son to design the house (Lempert Sr., had already semi-retired by 1909, and died that year, so the lead architect was Leon H. Lempert, Jr.)
The Temple originally operated as a vaudeville house, but movies were occasionally shown even in its early years. In 1913, Moore presented at the Temple an early form of talking pictures with the sound recorded on discs.
A former resident of Ozark has informed me that the Brackin Theatre was located at what is now 176 Andrews Avenue. That entire block is currently the location of a CVS pharmacy and its parking lot. The theater was still in operation when he moved to Ozark in 1971.
Ozark did renumber its lots some years ago. However, it appears that Google Maps has not discovered the change. It mis-locates the correct modern address several blocks west of its actual location (Bing Maps gets the right block, at least.)
It looks like the Brackin Theatre closed in the 1970s. This web page about the Flowers Center for the Performing Arts (you’ll have to click on the “more” link) says that the building had been vacant since the 1970s when it was reopened to be used for Carroll High School’s musical productions in 1982, 1983, and 1984.
Although the current Dale County courthouse was built in 1969, the square block it is on was already public land. An earlier courthouse stood on the block from 1902 to 1968. The Brackin Theatre, which wasn’t demolished until 1999, must have been somewhere else.
The 1947 obituary of Walter J. Brackin can be found on this page. It says that he came to Ozark in 1935 and took over the local movie theater. In 1937 he built a new theater, and in 1945 yet another, even larger. As we have the Brackin listed with about twice the seating capacity of the Dale, the Dale must have been the 1937 house and the Brackin the one built in 1945.
I think Andy might be right. That building is the right size and shape to be the Dale Theatre in the photo.
This page has the 1947 obituary of theater owner Walter J. Brackin. It says he came to Ozark in 1935 and took over the local movie theater. In 1937 he built a new theater, and in 1945 he built another, larger theater. As we have the Brackin Theatre listed with almost twice as many seats as the Dale, the Dale must have been the 1937 project. The art deco detailing on the facade was certainly characteristic of late 1930s design.
I think we must have the wrong address for this theater. The 400 block of Broad Street is entirely residential, except for one church, and the houses look fairly expensive. It seems very unlikely that a theater would have been located among them. CinemaTour has the Brackin Theatre at 446 W. Broad, but west of town the street name changes to Andrews Avenue, so that might not be right either, unless the street names have been changed since the source for the address was published.
In the business district, Broad Street is called North Court Square, adding another layer of confusion. The Brackin Theatre might have been in that neighborhood, although if Google is to be believed, the numbers are totally screwy, with a jump from one and two digit addresses in the block east of Union Avenue to 300 in the block west of Union Avenue (and how did there come to be a street called Union Avenue in Alabama?) It’s very confusing.
The front of the Palace Theatre can be seen at far right in this 1931 photo. The buildings between the Palace and 12th Street were then about to be demolished to make way for Howe & Lescaze’s Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building.
TivFan: The landmark I use for the odd-numbered side of the 1200 block of Market is the tall building with several floors of bay windows (occupied by Boyd’s in the 1960 photo.) The Savoy was two doors east of that building, and the Bijou Dream was three doors farther east, as can be seen in this slightly larger version of the 1907 photo CSWalczak linked to. The Bijou had been gone for about three decades when the Savoy closed in the late 1940s and was replaced by Hanover Shoes.
The white-fronted building across the street in 1907 looks like it was on or next to the site of the Palace Theatre, which was built at 1214-1216 W.Market in 1908. In 1931, all the buildings between the Palace and 12th Street were demolished to make way for the PSFS building. One of the last photos of them is this one, which shows the Palace at right. A 1949 photo of the PSFS building here shows the Palace after it was remodeled (this photo is mis-captioned by Philly History as being the northeast corner of 12th and Market. It is actually the southwest corner.)
This page has several thumbnail photos of the Palace, but you can’t see the full sized versions unless you are a subscriber to Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. Is the colorized postcard they display the same one you have? (I’m not a subscriber and I can’t make out much detail from the thumbnail.)
TivFan: Check this photo of buildings in the 1200 block of Market Street in 1930. At 1213 is the Savoy Theatre, but I think the building you are talking about was on the lot at far left, which was probably 1219 Market. As of 1930, it looks like the building had either had some floors added, or had been replaced by a new building. Whatever theater had been on that site was gone by 1930, and was probably probably gone quite a bit earlier.
By 1932, the building had either been remodeled or replaced, and housed Richman Brothers Clothes, as seen in this photo.
My notes say that the Crescent Theatre operated at 451 S. Salina Street from 1909 to 1928. It was built and originally operated by the Cahill brothers. In 1916 it became part of the Keith vaudeville circuit for a while. A Marr & Colton organ was installed in 1920.
Girard: A Canal Town History, by Geoffrey L. Domowicz, says that the Denman Theatre is located on Main Street, though it doesn’t provide an address. It also uses the present tense in giving the location, but I was unable to spot the building using Google Street View. Maybe somebody else will have better luck.
The theater was apparently named for actor Thompson Denman, who was born in Girard in 1833. He died in 1911, after having spent much of his career playing the lead in a play he commissioned called The Old Homestead.
An ad in a 1927 issue of Publisher’s Weekly lists a book store called the Little Shop located in the Denman Theatre building, so it was open at least that early.
Architect George Eichenlaub penned at least two articles about his “Standard” theater designs for Boxoffice predecessor Motion Picture Times. One in the January 14, 1930, issue describes and illustrates a 500-seat house, which is probably the model the Denman followed. The article begins at this link and continues on this page.
Eichenlaub’s February 11, 1930, article about 750 seat theaters can be seen at this link.
The 1908-1909 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide lists the Lyceum Theatre at Smethport as a ground floor house with 710 seats.
The Lyceum apparently opened in 1904, not 1906. The entry for St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in a tour book of Smethport says that the church building burned just before Christmas, 1904, and that the Christmas Mass that year was held at the newly-constructed Lyceum Theatre.
A list of corporations chartered in Pennsylvania in 1902 includes the Smethport Lyceum Company, incorporated on November 14 for the purpose of building and operating an opera house at Smethport.
After WWI, the building was bought by the American Legion, and it is mentioned in various publications of the 1920s and 1930s as the Legion Lyceum. I haven’t found any indication that the house ever operated on a regular basis as a movie theater. Our page for the Star Theatre, Smethport’s other theater, says that it opened in 1906 as the Kerr Moving Picture House. With 410 seats, it was probably sufficient to this small town’s demand for movies.
It’s possible that the Florida Theatre was the new house mentioned in the November 16, 1925, issue of The Film Daily:
“Construction work on Haines City’s new $100,000 theater has begun. The architect is R. A. Benjamin, of Jacksonville.”
Haines City’s other early theater, the Mar-Lea, was already in operation in 1925, and a photo of it shows that it was a fairly small house that was very unlikely to have cost $100,000.
A 1917 volume called The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne Indiana, by Joseph Griswold, has a paragraph about the Palace Theatre as part of a brief biography of Frank E. Stouder:
“1913 Mr. Stouder organized what is now the Palace Theater Company and instituted the erection of this theater, which was formally opened to the public on January 25, 1915, and it has gained recognition as one of the most modern and attractive theaters in the middle west. It is conceded to be the finest house devoted to vaudeville entertainment in the entire state of Indiana, and the building was erected and equipped at a cost of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. It is of thoroughly fireproof construction, has a seating capacity of two thousand, has the most approved appointments for lighting, heating and ventilating and the general equipment of the stage and general auditorium is of thoroughly metropolitan order, the house having been designed by C. W. and G. L. Rapp, the celebrated theater architects, of Chicago. In presenting the attractions of the unrivaled Keith vaudeville circuit this beautiful house has not been denied the full measure of popular approval and support, and it has added much to the metropolitan prestige of Fort Wayne.”
In partnership with Byron H. Barnett, Frank Stouder had earlier operated two other Fort Wayne houses; the Temple Theatre, beginning in 1894, and the Lyric Theatre, beginning in 1910. Stouder and Barnett disposed of their interests in both houses in 1915, to concentrate on operating the Palace.
Photos of the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas can be seen on this page at the web site of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the Berkeley firm that designed the renovation. D.Jamie Rusin was the principal architect for the project.
Previously, ELS has been involved in several restoration and adaptive reuse projects at historic theaters. The include the conversion of the Portland Theatre, Portland, Oregon, into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall; the expansion and restoration of the California Theatre in San Jose; the restoration of the Fox Theatre in Oakland; and the expansion and restoration of the Grand Theatre at Tracy, California, for the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts.
Photos of the restored California Theatre can be seen on this page at the web site of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the firm that handled the renovation project. The project included an entirely new stage tower and two new buildings to augment the theater’s production space and public areas. The web page has a plan of the ground floor showing the changes.
ELS also designed restoration projects for the Portland Theatre in Portland, Oregon, now Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall; The Fox Oakland Theatre; the restoration of the Grand Theatre at Tracy, California, as part of the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts; and the recent renovation of the former AMC Kabuki multiplex in San Francisco for Sundance Cinemas.
This article about the restoration of the Fox Oakland Theatre is by Kurt Schindler, principal of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the Berkeley firm that did the plans for the renovation of the theater.
The firm’s web site also offers this page with several photos of the Fox.
In addition to the Fox, ELS has designed the restorations of the Grand Theatre in Tracy, California, the California Theatre in San Jose, and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, formerly the Portland Theatre, in Portland, Oregon. More recently, ELS handled the renovation of the old AMC Kabuki multiplex for Sundance Cinemas.
A permit for the Broadway Theatre was issued in 1918. The theater was designed by Carneal & Johnston, and commissioned by A. L. Strauss. The contractor was the J. T. Wilson Company.
A permit for a “New Theatre” for Mr. B. Bear was issued in 1914. The location given is the north side of Broad Street between 2nd and 3rd. The architect of record was William C. West, but a drawing of the house exists labeled “New Theatre for Mr. M. F. Hofheimer, Richmond Va., Designed by Atlantic Terra Cotta Company, 1170 Broadway New York.” It is presumed that Bear obtained the drawing from Hofheimer after the latter abandoned the project, and had West design the rest of the building.
A permit for the Hippodrome Theatre at 530 N. Second Street was issued by the City of Richmond in 1912. The architect for the project was Charles H. Fisher of Fisher & Rabenstein, Architects. The project was commissioned by Mrs. A. E. Thorp.
The history section of the Hippodrome’s official web site says that the house opened in 1904. If that’s the case, then the 1912 permit must have been for alterations to the theater.
A permit was issued in 1910 for a theater located on Broad Street between Jefferson and Brook Avenue, but the name on the permit was Star Theatre. Still, it was being built for M. L. Hofheimer, who was the original owner of the Empire Theatre. The project was designed by C. K. Howell of the firm of Scarborough & Howell, Engineers & Architects.
Howell also designed the smaller movie theater next door, now the Walker Theatre, for Hofheimer the following year. It is very likely that the 1910 Star Theatre project was the house that opened in 1911 as the Empire.
The permit to build this theater was issued to M. L. Hofheimer. The architect for the project was C. K. Howell, and the contractor was A. C. Houston. A description of Howell’s drawings says that the “…facade features Corinthian columns, masks and garlands, and statuary.” The modern photos linked earlier show that quite a bit of this decoration survived into recent times.
The Temple Theatre was an impressive structure, as seen in this vintage postcard. It was built by impresario James H. Moore, who chose the Rochester firm of Leon H. Lempert & Son to design the house (Lempert Sr., had already semi-retired by 1909, and died that year, so the lead architect was Leon H. Lempert, Jr.)
The Temple originally operated as a vaudeville house, but movies were occasionally shown even in its early years. In 1913, Moore presented at the Temple an early form of talking pictures with the sound recorded on discs.
A former resident of Ozark has informed me that the Brackin Theatre was located at what is now 176 Andrews Avenue. That entire block is currently the location of a CVS pharmacy and its parking lot. The theater was still in operation when he moved to Ozark in 1971.
Ozark did renumber its lots some years ago. However, it appears that Google Maps has not discovered the change. It mis-locates the correct modern address several blocks west of its actual location (Bing Maps gets the right block, at least.)
It looks like the Brackin Theatre closed in the 1970s. This web page about the Flowers Center for the Performing Arts (you’ll have to click on the “more” link) says that the building had been vacant since the 1970s when it was reopened to be used for Carroll High School’s musical productions in 1982, 1983, and 1984.
Although the current Dale County courthouse was built in 1969, the square block it is on was already public land. An earlier courthouse stood on the block from 1902 to 1968. The Brackin Theatre, which wasn’t demolished until 1999, must have been somewhere else.
The 1947 obituary of Walter J. Brackin can be found on this page. It says that he came to Ozark in 1935 and took over the local movie theater. In 1937 he built a new theater, and in 1945 yet another, even larger. As we have the Brackin listed with about twice the seating capacity of the Dale, the Dale must have been the 1937 house and the Brackin the one built in 1945.
I think Andy might be right. That building is the right size and shape to be the Dale Theatre in the photo.
This page has the 1947 obituary of theater owner Walter J. Brackin. It says he came to Ozark in 1935 and took over the local movie theater. In 1937 he built a new theater, and in 1945 he built another, larger theater. As we have the Brackin Theatre listed with almost twice as many seats as the Dale, the Dale must have been the 1937 project. The art deco detailing on the facade was certainly characteristic of late 1930s design.
I think we must have the wrong address for this theater. The 400 block of Broad Street is entirely residential, except for one church, and the houses look fairly expensive. It seems very unlikely that a theater would have been located among them. CinemaTour has the Brackin Theatre at 446 W. Broad, but west of town the street name changes to Andrews Avenue, so that might not be right either, unless the street names have been changed since the source for the address was published.
In the business district, Broad Street is called North Court Square, adding another layer of confusion. The Brackin Theatre might have been in that neighborhood, although if Google is to be believed, the numbers are totally screwy, with a jump from one and two digit addresses in the block east of Union Avenue to 300 in the block west of Union Avenue (and how did there come to be a street called Union Avenue in Alabama?) It’s very confusing.
The front of the Palace Theatre can be seen at far right in this 1931 photo. The buildings between the Palace and 12th Street were then about to be demolished to make way for Howe & Lescaze’s Philadelphia Savings Fund Society building.
TivFan: The landmark I use for the odd-numbered side of the 1200 block of Market is the tall building with several floors of bay windows (occupied by Boyd’s in the 1960 photo.) The Savoy was two doors east of that building, and the Bijou Dream was three doors farther east, as can be seen in this slightly larger version of the 1907 photo CSWalczak linked to. The Bijou had been gone for about three decades when the Savoy closed in the late 1940s and was replaced by Hanover Shoes.
The white-fronted building across the street in 1907 looks like it was on or next to the site of the Palace Theatre, which was built at 1214-1216 W.Market in 1908. In 1931, all the buildings between the Palace and 12th Street were demolished to make way for the PSFS building. One of the last photos of them is this one, which shows the Palace at right. A 1949 photo of the PSFS building here shows the Palace after it was remodeled (this photo is mis-captioned by Philly History as being the northeast corner of 12th and Market. It is actually the southwest corner.)
This page has several thumbnail photos of the Palace, but you can’t see the full sized versions unless you are a subscriber to Philadelphia Architects and Buildings. Is the colorized postcard they display the same one you have? (I’m not a subscriber and I can’t make out much detail from the thumbnail.)
TivFan: Check this photo of buildings in the 1200 block of Market Street in 1930. At 1213 is the Savoy Theatre, but I think the building you are talking about was on the lot at far left, which was probably 1219 Market. As of 1930, it looks like the building had either had some floors added, or had been replaced by a new building. Whatever theater had been on that site was gone by 1930, and was probably probably gone quite a bit earlier.
By 1932, the building had either been remodeled or replaced, and housed Richman Brothers Clothes, as seen in this photo.
My notes say that the Crescent Theatre operated at 451 S. Salina Street from 1909 to 1928. It was built and originally operated by the Cahill brothers. In 1916 it became part of the Keith vaudeville circuit for a while. A Marr & Colton organ was installed in 1920.
Girard: A Canal Town History, by Geoffrey L. Domowicz, says that the Denman Theatre is located on Main Street, though it doesn’t provide an address. It also uses the present tense in giving the location, but I was unable to spot the building using Google Street View. Maybe somebody else will have better luck.
The theater was apparently named for actor Thompson Denman, who was born in Girard in 1833. He died in 1911, after having spent much of his career playing the lead in a play he commissioned called The Old Homestead.
An ad in a 1927 issue of Publisher’s Weekly lists a book store called the Little Shop located in the Denman Theatre building, so it was open at least that early.
Architect George Eichenlaub penned at least two articles about his “Standard” theater designs for Boxoffice predecessor Motion Picture Times. One in the January 14, 1930, issue describes and illustrates a 500-seat house, which is probably the model the Denman followed. The article begins at this link and continues on this page.
Eichenlaub’s February 11, 1930, article about 750 seat theaters can be seen at this link.
The 1908-1909 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide lists the Lyceum Theatre at Smethport as a ground floor house with 710 seats.
The Lyceum apparently opened in 1904, not 1906. The entry for St. Elizabeth of Hungary Catholic Church in a tour book of Smethport says that the church building burned just before Christmas, 1904, and that the Christmas Mass that year was held at the newly-constructed Lyceum Theatre.
A list of corporations chartered in Pennsylvania in 1902 includes the Smethport Lyceum Company, incorporated on November 14 for the purpose of building and operating an opera house at Smethport.
After WWI, the building was bought by the American Legion, and it is mentioned in various publications of the 1920s and 1930s as the Legion Lyceum. I haven’t found any indication that the house ever operated on a regular basis as a movie theater. Our page for the Star Theatre, Smethport’s other theater, says that it opened in 1906 as the Kerr Moving Picture House. With 410 seats, it was probably sufficient to this small town’s demand for movies.
It’s possible that the Florida Theatre was the new house mentioned in the November 16, 1925, issue of The Film Daily:
Haines City’s other early theater, the Mar-Lea, was already in operation in 1925, and a photo of it shows that it was a fairly small house that was very unlikely to have cost $100,000.Steubenville’s Capitol Theatre opened on Labor Day, 1925, according to an item in the September 9 issue of The Film Daily.
The Wells Theatre is listed in a Fort Wayne telephone directory published in December, 1924.
A 1917 volume called The Pictorial History of Fort Wayne Indiana, by Joseph Griswold, has a paragraph about the Palace Theatre as part of a brief biography of Frank E. Stouder:
In partnership with Byron H. Barnett, Frank Stouder had earlier operated two other Fort Wayne houses; the Temple Theatre, beginning in 1894, and the Lyric Theatre, beginning in 1910. Stouder and Barnett disposed of their interests in both houses in 1915, to concentrate on operating the Palace.Photos of the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas can be seen on this page at the web site of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the Berkeley firm that designed the renovation. D.Jamie Rusin was the principal architect for the project.
Previously, ELS has been involved in several restoration and adaptive reuse projects at historic theaters. The include the conversion of the Portland Theatre, Portland, Oregon, into the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall; the expansion and restoration of the California Theatre in San Jose; the restoration of the Fox Theatre in Oakland; and the expansion and restoration of the Grand Theatre at Tracy, California, for the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts.
Photos of the restored California Theatre can be seen on this page at the web site of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the firm that handled the renovation project. The project included an entirely new stage tower and two new buildings to augment the theater’s production space and public areas. The web page has a plan of the ground floor showing the changes.
ELS also designed restoration projects for the Portland Theatre in Portland, Oregon, now Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall; The Fox Oakland Theatre; the restoration of the Grand Theatre at Tracy, California, as part of the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts; and the recent renovation of the former AMC Kabuki multiplex in San Francisco for Sundance Cinemas.
This article about the restoration of the Fox Oakland Theatre is by Kurt Schindler, principal of ELS Architecture and Urban Design, the Berkeley firm that did the plans for the renovation of the theater.
The firm’s web site also offers this page with several photos of the Fox.
In addition to the Fox, ELS has designed the restorations of the Grand Theatre in Tracy, California, the California Theatre in San Jose, and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, formerly the Portland Theatre, in Portland, Oregon. More recently, ELS handled the renovation of the old AMC Kabuki multiplex for Sundance Cinemas.