Garden Theatre
150 N. Broad Street,
Trenton,
NJ
08608
150 N. Broad Street,
Trenton,
NJ
08608
4 people
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On Broad Street near Perry Street, this long-closed theater apparently still existed two or three years ago, as there was a short article in one of the Trenton papers about a man who was trying to restore it for use as a live theater venue. I have not seen anything since then about this endeavor.
Contributed by
RickB
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Recent comments (view all 12 comments)
Listed on page 126 of the 1917 Trenton City Directory under “Moving Pictures”. Address is given as 148 N. Broad.
Listed on page 66 of the 1913 Trenton City Directory under “Amusements”.
Going north on Broad St., it was on the right hand side. Around 1972, It had Garden Theatre painted on the south side of the building but very faded. The name on the Marquee was hand lettered It said “Teatro Puerto Rico”. They were showing Spanish language films. The booth was one of my all time favorites. Very early Regular Simplex projecctors, Western Electric (Mirror-phonic?) sound heads. When you opened the soundhead door, you would loose the sound. The carbon arc lamps were called Strong Mogul’s. Instead of an electric change over behind the aperture, The had two sliding metal plates on tracks that were mounted on the wall and slid in front of port holes. The place had a large wooden balcony with windows ob the back wall.
I remember a live venue in the 1980s called City Gardens. Could this be the same building?
I found out that City Gardens was on Calhoun Street.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d9n3rz
Back in the 50s, the Garden was a “Colored theater” catering to a Black clientele. It was fairly rundown and wasn’t showing anything close to a first run. My memory is of older “B” films.
EdM
The Garden Theatre, owned by Charles Hildinger and Milton Hirshfild reopened on April 27, 1925.
The building still exists. Here’s a link to a photo by Seth Gaines on Flickr.
View link
My grandmother immigrated to Trenton from England in 1910 at age 14. I recall her pointing out this theater, or another near this location, as being the “tin dump.” It apparently had a metal roof that made a great deal of noise when it was raining. It also had a balcony reserved for African Americans that was offensively known as N. Heaven.