Palace Theater
3114 Washington Avenue,
Newport News,
VA
23607
3114 Washington Avenue,
Newport News,
VA
23607
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November 3rd, 1917 grand opening ad in the photo section.
The Palace Theatre opened on November 3, 1917.
The original building was demolished and rebuilt and opened in 1940.
The first Sunday showing at the Palace was June 2, 1940
The Palace played its first X movie, “ILSA”, in January 1976.
The Palace played a lot of Black Exploitation type movies in 1976 and 1977
The last ad for the Palace found appeared in the June 6, 1978 issue of the Daily Press
All of the other Downtown Newport News Theaters – The Warwick, The Paramount and the Downtown – were all playing XXX movies in their last days during the late 70’s
I was able to go inside the Palace Theater this week. It is now a church and looks just about like it did in its day. The murals on the walls are gone replaced by paint and Bible verses, the upstairs lobby has been remodeled as well at the rest rooms but other than that it is much the same. They told me that the seats are about 90% original. The screen is gone but the stage is still there. They hold meetings there every Sunday. I am posting a photo of sitting in the lobby last week.
Great shot of the Palace here. Caption says demolished but as we know it is now a Church.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39581010@N00/227414878/sizes/l/in/photostream/
The Palace, in its glory days:
As the 2nd picrure shows a lot of downtown,compare to a visit now.Where did it all go?You’d really have to look hard to find a downtown so destroyed.Leave it to the amazing Mr.Memory to show the truth so well.
Newport News is one of the saddest victims of that evil curse-“urban renewal”.It once had a vibrant,busy downtown with large dept.stores,theaters and shops.It is a near total wasteland now.