Do you think, looking back, that this website has been able to help in saving valuable examples of American theater architecture? I certainly hope so and I think this site serves as a necessary repository of cataloging historic theaters past and present and hopefully for the future too.
I guess I really don’t have anything against the statues per se, on thinking about them again one realizes that the work put into them must have been appreciable. It’s just the fact that they had to put them there on that site. I think the site where they met would be the better spot. I would like to know, somehow, if tearing down the Grand Theater was put to some kind of popular vote.
Does anyone else in Westfield think that the ridiculous statues of Lincoln and Grace Bedell don’t belong on that site? I really hope old blueprints and plans for the Grand Theater can be found and that some eccentric billionaire decides to remove those statues to some attic or a remote area in some park in Westfield and then rebuilds the Grand Theater. How much did it cost to make and put those stupid statues there when that money could have been used to fix up the theater and at least use it for some alternative purpose? A community recreation center maybe? Who allowed something this stupid?! It’s just more evidence of the cloying, maudlin sentimentality so pervasive in society today. If those statues have to be anywhere why not put them at the site where Lincoln met Grace Bedell instead of adding insult to injury by putting them on the site of a razed theater?!
It would be nice to be as wealthy as Bill Gates, that way I might be able to have some architect draw up a replica of Keller’s, pay off the Baptist Church to “get lost”, tear down their ugly building and rebuild Keller’s Theater.
Have any theater groups in Erie ever thought of restoring this theater to show old cartoons and newsreels? I have no idea what it would take to do this but I think it would be better than using it for storage. I suppose one has to be contented with the fact that it is used for something and hasn’t been torn down.
The whole neighborhood where the Hillcrest/Hippodrome theater is located has great potential. As it is now it is a botched up mess. Bury the power lines, fix up the great old buildings around there and do something with the big old schoolhouse up the street—at least tear off that ugly auto parts store in front of it. Maybe it could be turned into a youth hostel or something. The business that occupies the theater could be enticed to move somewhere else nearby and the theater restored to show cartoons and old newsreels and maybe old movies, even silent ones. I say turn the art and architecture majors from Penn State Behrend and Gannon loose on that neighborhood—anything they produce has got to be better than the mess that is there now. And turn that green area in front of the bank branch (whose architecture doesn’t go with the neighborhood BTW) into a park if nothing else. Dare to do something different, Erie!
I agree with Vickaronomie—if I had the money Bill Gates has one of my “pastimes” would be to fix up old theaters like this and have them show whatever I wanted especially when I would breeze into town; it wouldn’t matter if it made a profit since it would be endowed to stay open for my pleasure! Aside from that bit of fantasy though, I’m wondering if someone in Erie or maybe even a city/state government partnership with private funding could restore the remaining theaters in Erie and show mainly stuff like Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and Pathe News newsreels. I have no clue where as complete a selection of old newsreels and cartoons could be found but I think a venture like this could be good for tourism if nothing else and we all know a place as dreary as Erie needs something fun and original like this.
I wouldn’t call some theater built in a shopping center since 1970 “classic”, especially in a spectacle of urban spawl like the “Millcreek Mall”—I think theaters like the Warner or the Strand are what this site is after.
Do you think, looking back, that this website has been able to help in saving valuable examples of American theater architecture? I certainly hope so and I think this site serves as a necessary repository of cataloging historic theaters past and present and hopefully for the future too.
I guess I really don’t have anything against the statues per se, on thinking about them again one realizes that the work put into them must have been appreciable. It’s just the fact that they had to put them there on that site. I think the site where they met would be the better spot. I would like to know, somehow, if tearing down the Grand Theater was put to some kind of popular vote.
Does anyone else in Westfield think that the ridiculous statues of Lincoln and Grace Bedell don’t belong on that site? I really hope old blueprints and plans for the Grand Theater can be found and that some eccentric billionaire decides to remove those statues to some attic or a remote area in some park in Westfield and then rebuilds the Grand Theater. How much did it cost to make and put those stupid statues there when that money could have been used to fix up the theater and at least use it for some alternative purpose? A community recreation center maybe? Who allowed something this stupid?! It’s just more evidence of the cloying, maudlin sentimentality so pervasive in society today. If those statues have to be anywhere why not put them at the site where Lincoln met Grace Bedell instead of adding insult to injury by putting them on the site of a razed theater?!
It would be nice to be as wealthy as Bill Gates, that way I might be able to have some architect draw up a replica of Keller’s, pay off the Baptist Church to “get lost”, tear down their ugly building and rebuild Keller’s Theater.
Have any theater groups in Erie ever thought of restoring this theater to show old cartoons and newsreels? I have no idea what it would take to do this but I think it would be better than using it for storage. I suppose one has to be contented with the fact that it is used for something and hasn’t been torn down.
The whole neighborhood where the Hillcrest/Hippodrome theater is located has great potential. As it is now it is a botched up mess. Bury the power lines, fix up the great old buildings around there and do something with the big old schoolhouse up the street—at least tear off that ugly auto parts store in front of it. Maybe it could be turned into a youth hostel or something. The business that occupies the theater could be enticed to move somewhere else nearby and the theater restored to show cartoons and old newsreels and maybe old movies, even silent ones. I say turn the art and architecture majors from Penn State Behrend and Gannon loose on that neighborhood—anything they produce has got to be better than the mess that is there now. And turn that green area in front of the bank branch (whose architecture doesn’t go with the neighborhood BTW) into a park if nothing else. Dare to do something different, Erie!
I agree with Vickaronomie—if I had the money Bill Gates has one of my “pastimes” would be to fix up old theaters like this and have them show whatever I wanted especially when I would breeze into town; it wouldn’t matter if it made a profit since it would be endowed to stay open for my pleasure! Aside from that bit of fantasy though, I’m wondering if someone in Erie or maybe even a city/state government partnership with private funding could restore the remaining theaters in Erie and show mainly stuff like Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons and Pathe News newsreels. I have no clue where as complete a selection of old newsreels and cartoons could be found but I think a venture like this could be good for tourism if nothing else and we all know a place as dreary as Erie needs something fun and original like this.
I wouldn’t call some theater built in a shopping center since 1970 “classic”, especially in a spectacle of urban spawl like the “Millcreek Mall”—I think theaters like the Warner or the Strand are what this site is after.