Garden Theatre

The Garden Theatre opened on June 13, 1913 with sound accompanied films. It played films on a continuous, grind policy from 10 a.m. to midnight. Charles Hildinger and Milton Hirshfild - operators of city’s second Bijou Theatre, the Rialto, the Berkley, the Victory, the Royal, the Majestic, the Jefferson, and the Strand - all in Trenton. The theatre was not wired for sound and is used rarely for live events.

New operators took on the venue on November 21, 1930 under the name of The Little Cinema with “The Unholy Tree.” The theater immediately switched to German language films. Diversifying under the name of The Little Cinema Theatre in 1931, it programmed Italian, Yiddish, German and Hungarian language films. The Danceland dance hall opened above the theater. The name was shortened to the Little Theatre closing in 1936.

On November 18, 1937, the “New” Garden Theatre opens under Mercer Entertainment Circuit with the exploitation film, “Human Wreckage.” It plays other exploitations titles including, “Lash of the Penitentes” and “Smashing the Vice Trust.” The theater became an African American venue into 1960 with an end date hard to pinpoint. It then became Teatro Puerto Rico showing Spanish language films. In the 21st Century, it was a live music hall with the theater intact in the 2020s with the Beach nameplate restore and replaced when it became a nightclub.

The building still exists. Here’s a link to a photo by Seth Gaines on Flickr.
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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

I found out that City Gardens was on Calhoun Street.

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.

Listed on page 126 of the 1917 Trenton City Directory under “Moving Pictures”. Address is given as 148 N. Broad.

Garden Theatre, (Benjamin Robinson), moving pictures, 150 N Broad"

listing in the 1920 Trenton City Directory as hosted by trentonhistory.org I believe that Mr. Robinson was the theatre manager.