The opening year for the Pan Pacific Theatre was probably either 1936 or 1937, as the entry for architect Welton Beckett (William Pereira’s partner) in the AIA’s 1956 American Architects Directory lists the design as a 1936 project.
An article about concrete theater construction, in Boxoffice of April 2, 1949, included an interior photo of the Michigan Theatre, though I don’t find the house mentioned in the article itself. The style was Art Deco. The photo caption attributes the design to the Dearborn architectural firm Bennett & Straight.
The only interior view of the Wynnewood Theatre I’ve been able to find is a small shot of the concession stand on this page of Boxoffice, June 7, 1952.
Photos of the concession stand and the ladies' lounge illustrate this brief article about the remodeling of the State Theatre in Boxoffice of June 7, 1952.
An article about a remodeling of the Majestic Theatre on this page of Boxoffice, June 7, 1952, has four small photos of the theater. The article mistakenly says that the house was built in 1889, which is actually the year Oklahoma City was founded.
This page of Boxoffice of June 7, 1952, has photos of the Baronet Theatre. One photo shows the entrance of house from before the remodeling, when it was the Arcadia Theatre.
This article in Boxoffice of June 7, 1952, says that the Cooper Foundation’s original plans to rebuild the Trail Theatre in 1950 were dropped due to building restrictions imposed by the NPA. Instead the Trail was to be remodeled in several phases, the first of which began in late November, 1951, with the house reopening on New Year’s eve.
In addition to the text on the page I linked to, there is additonal text on the subsequent page, and several photos on the previous page.
As of 1952, the Foundation still intended to completely rebuilt the theater, but if boompated is correct that plan was never carried out. We might as weel rename this page for the Trail Theatre, which I can’t find listed at Cinema Treasures. The Boxoffice article said that the building the Trail occupied had been converted into a theater in the early part of the 20th century, and the theater had been remodeled previously, most recently in 1937.
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters says that the firm designed the 1937 remodeling project, and that the house had been known as the America, Majestic, and Empress Theatre over the years. Boxoffice said that the aborted 1950 rebuilding project was to have been designed by Boller & Lusk, so that firm probably designed the rather limited structural changes for the 1951 remodeling. The interiors for the project were by the Teichert studios.
The 1952 photo of the Town Theatre in Boxoffice can now be seen at this link.
The web site of the Everyman Theatre is now saying that their new venue will be opened in the fall of this year. The picture of the restored facade on this page shows the name Everyman on the vertical sign, so apparently none of the house’s historic names will be brought back.
The item is two and a half years old, but here is a photo gallery with two historic and five modern photos of the Granada Theatre. As the auditorium floor has been leveled with concrete, it’s unlikely that this house will be returned to use as a theater. The owner as of October, 2010, intended to use the space as a banquet hall and events center.
This web page has four small photos of the facade by the construction company that did the restoration work.
I’ve been unable to find any recent reports on this project, and I can’t find a banquet hall or events center listed it its address. The project might have been stalled by the sluggish economy.
As far as I can discover, there is at this time no 400 block on Atwood Avenue. The lowest numbers on the street are in the 1900 block. The street just ends with that block, too, so it isn’t a case of part of a street being renamed. If the Royal was once at 407 Atwood, there must have been a drastic renumbering of the lots at some point.
The Strand was one of several Madison theaters built by Dr. William G. Beecroft, a local dentist. Beecroft was also the owner of the Amuse Theatre, which was converted into the Strand’s lobby. Reports about Dr. Beecroft’s theater project on East Mifflin Street began appearing in financial and construction trade publications in late 1917, and continued into early 1918. Several of these items say that the project was designed by Rapp & Rapp.
The small 1940 photo of the Delano Theatre in Boxoffice is online again at this link.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for the Delano Theatre #1, opened in 1915, but no page for the second Delano Theatre, opened 1924. Both houses were operated by Frank Panero, but I don’t know if they were at different sites. In any case, the Delano Theatre standing today must be the house that was built in 1924 and designed by Charles H. Biggar.
This interesting document is from the diary of Gerrit Winsemius, a Dutch immigrant to Grand Rapids who installed and repaired organs. This is an entry mentioning the Empress Theatre: “1914 Aug 24 Empress theater, Bond Ave + Lyon Street first used.”
It must have been Winsemius who installed the Empress Theatre’s first organ, the Kimball mentioned in an earlier comment by lostmemory. Mr. Winsemius' terseness leaves it unclear whether the “first used” refers to the organ or to the theater itself. In any case, I’ve found references in The Billboard to acts appearing at the Empress in 1914, so that must be the year it opened. The 1915 Variety item cited earlier by JAlex must refer to the reopening of the house under the Keith circuit’s operation.
The April 30, 1930, issue of The Pittsburgh Press has this article about the takeover of the Harris circuit’s theaters by the Warners and RKO. Among the houses being taken over by RKO the article lists the Regent and Empress Theatres in Grand Rapids.
I’m beginning to doubt that this theater was ever called simply Keith’s Theatre during the 1910s or 1920s. I’ve found over 400 references to the Empress Theatre from 1915 to 1922, and only one of them refers to it as Keith’s Empress. It looks like the house only became Keith’s Theatre after RKO took over operation, but how long after I don’t know. The earliest photo I’ve seen with the name Keith’s on the vertical sign dates from 1946 (seenhere at CinemaTour.)
An item in The Construction News of August 9, 1913, not only confirms that Lee DeCamp was the original architect for the Empress Theatre, but that Robert Boller was involved in the project as well:
“Grand Rapids, Mich.—Theater, $100,000. Lyon St. and Bond Av. Archt., Lee DeCamp, Kansas City, Mo., has completed sketches and will open a temporary office in Grand Rapids in charge of Robert Boiler. Plans will be completed in two weeks. Owner, Empress Theater Co., c/o A. Rosenbloom, pres., Kalamazoo Paint Co., Kalamazoo, Mich.”
It’s possible that Robert Boller was the supervising architect for the Grand Rapids Empress, or he might have had a hand in the design of the house as well. I’ve been unable to discover how long Robert Boller headed DeCamp’s “temporary” office in Grand Rapids, but in the December, 1921, issue of The Michigan Engineer, DeCamp was still listed as a registered architect with offices in the Empress Theatre Building in Grand Rapids.
DeCamp had some later association with the Boller brothers as well, but the roles were reversed. The NRHP registration form for the Booth Theatre, at Independence, Kansas, says that DeCamp was the construction superintendent for that 1926-1927 Boller Brothers project.
This page has a photo of the XD Theatre, the current occupant of the Carlton. It might not be showing real movies, but the attraction is probably taking in enough revenue to keep the roof repaired.
The October 13, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had an item which might have been about the original Carlton Theatre, which this house replaced in 1937:
“Another new picture theatre has been commenced in Upper Sackville Street. Dublin. The hall will be 100 ft. by 28 ft., and 26 ft. in height. There will be a tea lounge and offices in the front having a depth of 50 ft. The interior of the building will be finished in polished mahogany. Mr. T. F. Macnaniara.
Great Brunswick Street, Dublin, is the architect, and Messrs. H. and J. Martin, Grand Canal Street, are the contractors.”
The December 29, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had the following item:
“A new theatre and cafes, shops and suites of offices have been erected on the Havelock House site, Sunderland, for the Provincial Cinematograph Theatres, Limited. The architects were Messrs. Percy L. Browne and Glover, Newcastle, and the contractors Messrs. McLoughlin and Harvey, of Belfast”
Percy L. Browne and Glover were also architects for the 1923 rebuilding of the Empire Theatre at Whitley Bay.
I’ve moved the Street View to the approximate location of the theater in the 400 block of Wabasha Street North, but the pin is still in the wrong place on the map.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn-Leighton Theatrical Guide lists the Empress as a Sullivan & Considine circuit vaudeville house. Given that the great majority of the houses built for that large but short-lived circuit were called the Empress, it’s likely that this theater was built for the circuit, rather than one of the many existing theaters it took over.
If the house was built for Sullivan & Considine, then the architect would most likely have been Lee DeCamp, who designed a large percentage of the circuit’s custom-built theaters.
The October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World makes a reference to the New Arion Theatre. Is it possible that 2420 Central was the address of the original Arion Theatre, replaced by this house in the late 1910s? The original Arion Theatre could have been in the small building that houses the southerly half of the Thai restaurant with the current address of 2422 Central.
Incidentally, the book cited by LAMartin earlier says that the remodeling of the Arion Theatre in 1923 was Jack Liebenberg’s very first theater project. His next theater, and the first designed from the ground up by Liebenberg & Kaplan, was the Granada.
CinemaTour gives the address of the Arion Theatre as 2316 Central Avenue, and that is probably correct. This photo, which was probably taken a year or two before the 1953 remodeling, shows the theater at left. Although most of the buildings on both sides of the street have since been demolished, the three buildings immediately south of the theater’s site are still standing and can be recognized in Street View despite some remodeling. The building that was adjacent to the theater currently uses the address 2312 Central, so 2316 was most likely the Arion Theatre’s address.
The address currently given for this theater is wrong. There is an old building housing the Durango Bakery at 2418 Central Avenue, and next door is a Thai restaurant, Sen Yai Sen Lek, at 2422 Central. The building with the bakery is obviously fairly old (probably 1920s era) and though the restaurant has a modern facade, satellite view shows that it occupies two small buildings, both of which have rather old-looking roofs. None of the three buildings with the number range 2418-2422 could have been a theater.
7720 Hampton Boulevard is now a Blockbuster Video store. I don’t know if it is the same building that housed the theater or not. As a post-war theater, it could have been built back from the street as part of a small shopping center, which is what the current building is.
This photo of the Colley Theatre is dated 1936. Aside from the loss of the vertical sign and the original marquee, and the removal a bit of the nice Art Deco detailing on the ground floor, the facade of this theater is remarkably well preserved.
The opening year for the Pan Pacific Theatre was probably either 1936 or 1937, as the entry for architect Welton Beckett (William Pereira’s partner) in the AIA’s 1956 American Architects Directory lists the design as a 1936 project.
An article about concrete theater construction, in Boxoffice of April 2, 1949, included an interior photo of the Michigan Theatre, though I don’t find the house mentioned in the article itself. The style was Art Deco. The photo caption attributes the design to the Dearborn architectural firm Bennett & Straight.
The only interior view of the Wynnewood Theatre I’ve been able to find is a small shot of the concession stand on this page of Boxoffice, June 7, 1952.
Photos of the concession stand and the ladies' lounge illustrate this brief article about the remodeling of the State Theatre in Boxoffice of June 7, 1952.
An article about a remodeling of the Majestic Theatre on this page of Boxoffice, June 7, 1952, has four small photos of the theater. The article mistakenly says that the house was built in 1889, which is actually the year Oklahoma City was founded.
Around 1952, the Lyric Theatre got a new front in the modern style. Before and after photos can be seen on this page of Boxoffice for June 7, 1952.
This page of Boxoffice of June 7, 1952, has photos of the Baronet Theatre. One photo shows the entrance of house from before the remodeling, when it was the Arcadia Theatre.
This article in Boxoffice of June 7, 1952, says that the Cooper Foundation’s original plans to rebuild the Trail Theatre in 1950 were dropped due to building restrictions imposed by the NPA. Instead the Trail was to be remodeled in several phases, the first of which began in late November, 1951, with the house reopening on New Year’s eve.
In addition to the text on the page I linked to, there is additonal text on the subsequent page, and several photos on the previous page.
As of 1952, the Foundation still intended to completely rebuilt the theater, but if boompated is correct that plan was never carried out. We might as weel rename this page for the Trail Theatre, which I can’t find listed at Cinema Treasures. The Boxoffice article said that the building the Trail occupied had been converted into a theater in the early part of the 20th century, and the theater had been remodeled previously, most recently in 1937.
David and Noelle’s list of known Boller Brothers theaters says that the firm designed the 1937 remodeling project, and that the house had been known as the America, Majestic, and Empress Theatre over the years. Boxoffice said that the aborted 1950 rebuilding project was to have been designed by Boller & Lusk, so that firm probably designed the rather limited structural changes for the 1951 remodeling. The interiors for the project were by the Teichert studios.
The 1952 photo of the Town Theatre in Boxoffice can now be seen at this link.
The web site of the Everyman Theatre is now saying that their new venue will be opened in the fall of this year. The picture of the restored facade on this page shows the name Everyman on the vertical sign, so apparently none of the house’s historic names will be brought back.
The item is two and a half years old, but here is a photo gallery with two historic and five modern photos of the Granada Theatre. As the auditorium floor has been leveled with concrete, it’s unlikely that this house will be returned to use as a theater. The owner as of October, 2010, intended to use the space as a banquet hall and events center.
This web page has four small photos of the facade by the construction company that did the restoration work.
I’ve been unable to find any recent reports on this project, and I can’t find a banquet hall or events center listed it its address. The project might have been stalled by the sluggish economy.
As far as I can discover, there is at this time no 400 block on Atwood Avenue. The lowest numbers on the street are in the 1900 block. The street just ends with that block, too, so it isn’t a case of part of a street being renamed. If the Royal was once at 407 Atwood, there must have been a drastic renumbering of the lots at some point.
Here is a ca.1915 photo of theRoyal Theatre.
A list of movie theaters opened in Madison between 1911 and 1914 includes the Royal.
Here is a direct link to the 1915 photo of the Gem Theatre.
A list of movie theaters opened in Madison between 1911 and 1914 includes the Gem.
The Strand was one of several Madison theaters built by Dr. William G. Beecroft, a local dentist. Beecroft was also the owner of the Amuse Theatre, which was converted into the Strand’s lobby. Reports about Dr. Beecroft’s theater project on East Mifflin Street began appearing in financial and construction trade publications in late 1917, and continued into early 1918. Several of these items say that the project was designed by Rapp & Rapp.
The small 1940 photo of the Delano Theatre in Boxoffice is online again at this link.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for the Delano Theatre #1, opened in 1915, but no page for the second Delano Theatre, opened 1924. Both houses were operated by Frank Panero, but I don’t know if they were at different sites. In any case, the Delano Theatre standing today must be the house that was built in 1924 and designed by Charles H. Biggar.
This interesting document is from the diary of Gerrit Winsemius, a Dutch immigrant to Grand Rapids who installed and repaired organs. This is an entry mentioning the Empress Theatre: “1914 Aug 24 Empress theater, Bond Ave + Lyon Street first used.”
It must have been Winsemius who installed the Empress Theatre’s first organ, the Kimball mentioned in an earlier comment by lostmemory. Mr. Winsemius' terseness leaves it unclear whether the “first used” refers to the organ or to the theater itself. In any case, I’ve found references in The Billboard to acts appearing at the Empress in 1914, so that must be the year it opened. The 1915 Variety item cited earlier by JAlex must refer to the reopening of the house under the Keith circuit’s operation.
The April 30, 1930, issue of The Pittsburgh Press has this article about the takeover of the Harris circuit’s theaters by the Warners and RKO. Among the houses being taken over by RKO the article lists the Regent and Empress Theatres in Grand Rapids.
I’m beginning to doubt that this theater was ever called simply Keith’s Theatre during the 1910s or 1920s. I’ve found over 400 references to the Empress Theatre from 1915 to 1922, and only one of them refers to it as Keith’s Empress. It looks like the house only became Keith’s Theatre after RKO took over operation, but how long after I don’t know. The earliest photo I’ve seen with the name Keith’s on the vertical sign dates from 1946 (seenhere at CinemaTour.)
An item in The Construction News of August 9, 1913, not only confirms that Lee DeCamp was the original architect for the Empress Theatre, but that Robert Boller was involved in the project as well:
It’s possible that Robert Boller was the supervising architect for the Grand Rapids Empress, or he might have had a hand in the design of the house as well. I’ve been unable to discover how long Robert Boller headed DeCamp’s “temporary” office in Grand Rapids, but in the December, 1921, issue of The Michigan Engineer, DeCamp was still listed as a registered architect with offices in the Empress Theatre Building in Grand Rapids.DeCamp had some later association with the Boller brothers as well, but the roles were reversed. The NRHP registration form for the Booth Theatre, at Independence, Kansas, says that DeCamp was the construction superintendent for that 1926-1927 Boller Brothers project.
This page has a photo of the XD Theatre, the current occupant of the Carlton. It might not be showing real movies, but the attraction is probably taking in enough revenue to keep the roof repaired.
The October 13, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had an item which might have been about the original Carlton Theatre, which this house replaced in 1937:
The December 29, 1915, issue of Building News and Engineering Journal had the following item:
Percy L. Browne and Glover were also architects for the 1923 rebuilding of the Empire Theatre at Whitley Bay.I’ve moved the Street View to the approximate location of the theater in the 400 block of Wabasha Street North, but the pin is still in the wrong place on the map.
The 1913-1914 edition of the Cahn-Leighton Theatrical Guide lists the Empress as a Sullivan & Considine circuit vaudeville house. Given that the great majority of the houses built for that large but short-lived circuit were called the Empress, it’s likely that this theater was built for the circuit, rather than one of the many existing theaters it took over.
If the house was built for Sullivan & Considine, then the architect would most likely have been Lee DeCamp, who designed a large percentage of the circuit’s custom-built theaters.
The October 12, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World makes a reference to the New Arion Theatre. Is it possible that 2420 Central was the address of the original Arion Theatre, replaced by this house in the late 1910s? The original Arion Theatre could have been in the small building that houses the southerly half of the Thai restaurant with the current address of 2422 Central.
Incidentally, the book cited by LAMartin earlier says that the remodeling of the Arion Theatre in 1923 was Jack Liebenberg’s very first theater project. His next theater, and the first designed from the ground up by Liebenberg & Kaplan, was the Granada.
CinemaTour gives the address of the Arion Theatre as 2316 Central Avenue, and that is probably correct. This photo, which was probably taken a year or two before the 1953 remodeling, shows the theater at left. Although most of the buildings on both sides of the street have since been demolished, the three buildings immediately south of the theater’s site are still standing and can be recognized in Street View despite some remodeling. The building that was adjacent to the theater currently uses the address 2312 Central, so 2316 was most likely the Arion Theatre’s address.
The address currently given for this theater is wrong. There is an old building housing the Durango Bakery at 2418 Central Avenue, and next door is a Thai restaurant, Sen Yai Sen Lek, at 2422 Central. The building with the bakery is obviously fairly old (probably 1920s era) and though the restaurant has a modern facade, satellite view shows that it occupies two small buildings, both of which have rather old-looking roofs. None of the three buildings with the number range 2418-2422 could have been a theater.
7720 Hampton Boulevard is now a Blockbuster Video store. I don’t know if it is the same building that housed the theater or not. As a post-war theater, it could have been built back from the street as part of a small shopping center, which is what the current building is.
This photo of the Colley Theatre is dated 1936. Aside from the loss of the vertical sign and the original marquee, and the removal a bit of the nice Art Deco detailing on the ground floor, the facade of this theater is remarkably well preserved.