Of all of the theatres in Chelsea, this had the shortest life and yet is the only one that wasn’t completely demolished. There are some small visual signs of its existence like windows cut into the rear of the building well after it was built, no windows on the third floor on the Fourth St. side showing where the theater existed within the building complex, and some rusting hulks on the roof that were part of the ventilation system for the projector that wasn’t completely removed until the late 2000s.
This is a rarity for the demolished theatres remnants of the theatre are still visible as the theatre’s basement was filled in while everything aboveground was demolished. Some bricks still stick up out of the ground at the edges of the property.
I assmume they were all affiliated in some form or another…I think one or more were operated by the same person according to the Massachusetts Metropolitan Polce report(s) from the 1910s.
The way I see it is that they went from vaudeville to movies and vaudeville then either went out of business when the larger neighborhood theatres opened or were reverted back to their original uses as gathering halls.
This seems to be the case with this theatre, I found reference to it being the Odd Fellows Hall and operating as a hall since 1874 at least…the Odd Fellows opened a new hall a block and a half away in Chelsea Square in 1906.
Looked at “Chelsea in the 20th Century” again and something I missed before on Page 26: a picture from the late 1910s featuring Broadway point north and lo and behold there is “Gordons” in a vertical marquee on a building at roughly the same stie! The theater probably underwent some kind of renovation and they removed the vertical marquee with the later horizontal but it is clearly the same site as the Olympia- so everyone was on the same page but in different eras.
It was at some point called “Olympia”, I’ve got two pictures from the book “Chelsea in the 20th Century” that confirm the theater at 362 Broadway as being the Olympia.
One is showing the old Broadway Theater closed directing people to “The Olympia” and another picture from roughly 1953 showing a marquee stating “Olympia”
I went by the site today and to my surprise part of the marquis for the Strand is still standing, it’s attatched to a pole as part of the parking lot but it’s shape is clearly the same as the old marquis…never noticed this until now and I pass by it all the time.
The Broadway was torn down, it’s now partly a public alley and partly a pub.
The Strand was torn down too, it’s now a parking lot.
The Olympic is abandoned and empty, it’s hard to tell it was ever a theatre as it’s masked by the cheap restaurants below.
The theatre that houses a bakery below is called the Hawthorne is housed in a former Masonic temple. The exterior was recently renovated but it is unclear whether the theatre has been renovated as well or if it lays abandonedTheatre and is house
The Parkway Plaza Theatre did indeed close in 1987. The city tore it down due to concerns over safety and a huge tax bill owed by the owner.
The plaza around the former theatre does well despite it’s “inconvenient” location. It’s actually very convenient from Rts. 1, 16, 107 and is off of two major MBTA bus routes so it’s drivable and reachable. There was a five year gap between the closing of Bradlees and the opening of Home Depot that was a low point for the plaza but it has rebounded nicely and should be expanding in the near future with a new renewed enthusiasm from the city, residents, customers, and the new owners.
Some video of the exterior of it before it closed down: https://twitter.com/WGBHStockSales/status/1157398334497337345
Of all of the theatres in Chelsea, this had the shortest life and yet is the only one that wasn’t completely demolished. There are some small visual signs of its existence like windows cut into the rear of the building well after it was built, no windows on the third floor on the Fourth St. side showing where the theater existed within the building complex, and some rusting hulks on the roof that were part of the ventilation system for the projector that wasn’t completely removed until the late 2000s.
This is a rarity for the demolished theatres remnants of the theatre are still visible as the theatre’s basement was filled in while everything aboveground was demolished. Some bricks still stick up out of the ground at the edges of the property.
photo from Mr. Lynch is the same photo in the dead link, taken in 1950.
Thank you for finding this, it’s vindication that I wasn’t seeing things when I discovered its existence.
I assmume they were all affiliated in some form or another…I think one or more were operated by the same person according to the Massachusetts Metropolitan Polce report(s) from the 1910s.
The way I see it is that they went from vaudeville to movies and vaudeville then either went out of business when the larger neighborhood theatres opened or were reverted back to their original uses as gathering halls.
This seems to be the case with this theatre, I found reference to it being the Odd Fellows Hall and operating as a hall since 1874 at least…the Odd Fellows opened a new hall a block and a half away in Chelsea Square in 1906.
Address is roughly 724 or 726 Blue Hill Ave.
And this theater is not demolished, it is still standing.
Looked at “Chelsea in the 20th Century” again and something I missed before on Page 26: a picture from the late 1910s featuring Broadway point north and lo and behold there is “Gordons” in a vertical marquee on a building at roughly the same stie! The theater probably underwent some kind of renovation and they removed the vertical marquee with the later horizontal but it is clearly the same site as the Olympia- so everyone was on the same page but in different eras.
It was at some point called “Olympia”, I’ve got two pictures from the book “Chelsea in the 20th Century” that confirm the theater at 362 Broadway as being the Olympia.
One is showing the old Broadway Theater closed directing people to “The Olympia” and another picture from roughly 1953 showing a marquee stating “Olympia”
I went by the site today and to my surprise part of the marquis for the Strand is still standing, it’s attatched to a pole as part of the parking lot but it’s shape is clearly the same as the old marquis…never noticed this until now and I pass by it all the time.
Regarding the former Chelsea cinemas:
The Broadway was torn down, it’s now partly a public alley and partly a pub.
The Strand was torn down too, it’s now a parking lot.
The Olympic is abandoned and empty, it’s hard to tell it was ever a theatre as it’s masked by the cheap restaurants below.
The theatre that houses a bakery below is called the Hawthorne is housed in a former Masonic temple. The exterior was recently renovated but it is unclear whether the theatre has been renovated as well or if it lays abandonedTheatre and is house
The Parkway Plaza Theatre did indeed close in 1987. The city tore it down due to concerns over safety and a huge tax bill owed by the owner.
The plaza around the former theatre does well despite it’s “inconvenient” location. It’s actually very convenient from Rts. 1, 16, 107 and is off of two major MBTA bus routes so it’s drivable and reachable. There was a five year gap between the closing of Bradlees and the opening of Home Depot that was a low point for the plaza but it has rebounded nicely and should be expanding in the near future with a new renewed enthusiasm from the city, residents, customers, and the new owners.