State Theatre
W. 3rd Street,
Greenville,
OH
45331
W. 3rd Street,
Greenville,
OH
45331
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One of two old former live theatres in Greenville. The State Theatre was opened as a movie theatre around 1927, replacing the former Trainor Opera House which had been destroyed by fire in 1926. It was operated by Chakeres Theaters Inc. The screen was hung over the old stage. Closed in the mid-1970’s and demolished in the early-1980’s.
Contributed by
Greg Asman
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Recent comments (view all 10 comments)
The State Theatre is listed as operating as a movie theatre in Film Daily Yearbooks that I have between 1941 and 1950. Dates before and after these need to be researched.
The State Theatre was torn down in the mid-eighties. I scrambled around in the rubble in the middle of the night til I found a whole brick as a remembrance. I was told it had been an opera house at one time. I worked the ticket booth at the Wayne Theatre in the winter and managed the Speed-Way Drive-In in the summer.
The earliest reference I’ve found to the State Theatre comes from Boxoffice Magazine, July 27, 1937, but that item says that the manager, Jonas Thomas, who was being transfered to another Chakeres Theatres house, had been at the State for the past four years, so the place was in operation by 1933.
A couple of issues of Movie Age from 1929 mention a National Theatre in Greenville. That might have been an earlier name for the State or the Wayne.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cn4zax
The most recent mention of the State I’ve found in Boxoffice comes from the April 12, 1965, issue. The house was then being operated by John Tabor, who would take over Greenville’s Wayne Theatre in 1975.
John Tabor also had the Speedway Drive-In. He also had a theatre in Bellfontaine, Ohio, which is where he lived and had his office. He had a couple of other theatres but I don’t remember where they were.
I’ve now found the State Theatre mentioned in the September 14, 1935, issue of Motion Picture Herald. It was being operated by Chakeres Theatres at that time.
I’ve come across two sources that say the State Theatre was on Third Street. This obituary of former manager Stockton Shafer says that it was on West Third, and the caption of this photo at Facebook just says Third Street. A commenter remembers seeing The Shining at the State, so it must have been in operation at least as late as 1975.
Well, duh. I forgot that this comment and this comment by CT member Pens on the Wayne Cinema page both say that the State Theatre was on Third Street. It replaced the Trainor Opera House, which was destroyed by fire in 1926, so it probably opened that year or in 1927. The State’s entrance building in the photo at Facebook looks 19th century, and might have been the Opera House entry as well. The Opera House was built by the IOOF in 1873.
Correct address was 114. The Sanborn maps refer to it as the Greenville Opera House, as far back as 1887. The 1905 Cahn guide does call it Trainor’s Opera House. The Odd Fellows hall was originally on the second floor, with the theater on the third, but between 1905 and 1910 they switched places.
As is so often the case, ‘destroyed’ apparently didn’t actually mean destroyed. I think the auditorium must have been damaged, because the 1930 map shows the building now slightly deeper, and it seems that the third floor has been removed over the auditorium. By 1948, the small storefronts that had been there since construction have been removed, leaving a large and spacious lobby.