Visited this theater, shortly before the “house” was demolished for a parking lot, as a reporter for a small weekly. Those touting demolition made their case. The interior was damp and had fungi and suffered water damage. The former owner dropped by during the press conference. He was none too popular with the citizenry present… As the Claremont Opera house is still hosting live acts at the city center, this theater was considered surplus in an industrial city that has seen better days. A parking lot replaced the “house.”
I saw Rocky Horror there for the first time. A Pizza Uno was built on the site after the building was torn down, now Aspen Dental.
They moved what locals called Keene Cinemas across Winchester Street down to a site off of Key Road just West of the Staples box store… Currently (2014)showing movies, saw The Wolf of Wall Street a few months back.
Across the street from the Colonial Theatre… My dad took me down to see the remains after the fire… I never saw a film there, but imagine it was similar to the Ogunquite (Maine) Playhouse in ambiance… I’ve been told it segregated people of color to the balcony upstairs ( with teenagers ) but I have never been able to prove it. The Eagle Hotel seen in a link would also succumb to fire shortly thereafter. Today nondescript brick faced cinder block stores have replaced both the Scenic and the Eagle Hotel.
This is Roxbury Street one block north of Church Street where the wooden theater stood… I think a brick one story building occupies the site now… Although there was an early theater near where the 21 Bar stands now (In the old Cheshire House annex building .)
This drive-in had the grandest neon “stars” I’d ever seen (haven’t been to Vegas yet.) I remember my last time there as a teenager, climbing up over the rear chain-link fence on boards we place there once the first feature started… Later the drive-in sold to become the site of the Keene Sentinel printing plant, which unlike the Union Leader and Concord Monitor’s, was never built ( I remember this as a Sentinel employee as I took the plans out to the dumpster for disposal.) Now home to pine trees and ground nesting birds…
Keene’s first run move theater… The Colonial down Main Street was for family-Disney fare… I remember the black marble inside… It’s last years running were sad, with buckets left out to collect rain water… Resentful friends at funerals tell me how during the 70s I forced them to take in Woody Allen movies there!
Visited this theater, shortly before the “house” was demolished for a parking lot, as a reporter for a small weekly. Those touting demolition made their case. The interior was damp and had fungi and suffered water damage. The former owner dropped by during the press conference. He was none too popular with the citizenry present… As the Claremont Opera house is still hosting live acts at the city center, this theater was considered surplus in an industrial city that has seen better days. A parking lot replaced the “house.”
Our dumb… And bleak age.
Wish you could have saved some of the old theater… Relics are important too.
Gotta love process… (sigh)
I saw Rocky Horror there for the first time. A Pizza Uno was built on the site after the building was torn down, now Aspen Dental.
They moved what locals called Keene Cinemas across Winchester Street down to a site off of Key Road just West of the Staples box store… Currently (2014)showing movies, saw The Wolf of Wall Street a few months back.
Across the street from the Colonial Theatre… My dad took me down to see the remains after the fire… I never saw a film there, but imagine it was similar to the Ogunquite (Maine) Playhouse in ambiance… I’ve been told it segregated people of color to the balcony upstairs ( with teenagers ) but I have never been able to prove it. The Eagle Hotel seen in a link would also succumb to fire shortly thereafter. Today nondescript brick faced cinder block stores have replaced both the Scenic and the Eagle Hotel.
This is Roxbury Street one block north of Church Street where the wooden theater stood… I think a brick one story building occupies the site now… Although there was an early theater near where the 21 Bar stands now (In the old Cheshire House annex building .)
This drive-in had the grandest neon “stars” I’d ever seen (haven’t been to Vegas yet.) I remember my last time there as a teenager, climbing up over the rear chain-link fence on boards we place there once the first feature started… Later the drive-in sold to become the site of the Keene Sentinel printing plant, which unlike the Union Leader and Concord Monitor’s, was never built ( I remember this as a Sentinel employee as I took the plans out to the dumpster for disposal.) Now home to pine trees and ground nesting birds…
Keene’s first run move theater… The Colonial down Main Street was for family-Disney fare… I remember the black marble inside… It’s last years running were sad, with buckets left out to collect rain water… Resentful friends at funerals tell me how during the 70s I forced them to take in Woody Allen movies there!