Cinema Plaza Theater
10 Pearl Street,
Malone,
NY
12953
10 Pearl Street,
Malone,
NY
12953
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The last movie I saw at the Plaza was “Places in the Heart” (1984), I was 8. I no longer lived with my former foster family in Athelstan, QC as I got moved into Allancroft Group Home – unit Woodside –in Beaconsfield, QC earlier that year. But I’d still visit them.
An April 5, 1913 item in The Moving Picture World said that the owners of the Star and Imperial Theatres had purchased a lot on Pearl Street for a motion picture theater. That project might have been the origin of the Plaza, or the Plaza might have been a later project noted in the August 13, 1921 issue of the same journal:
Cinematour link with four 1996 photos.
https://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/7687.html
The Plaza Theatre was sold to the Schine chain in 1926. Schine also purchased the Grand in Malone at the same time.
I found a newspaper article in the Plattsburgh Press-Republican which states that Malone had two theaters, the Plaza and the Schine. The article, dated 9/9/90 indicates it was the Schine, built in the 1930’s, that was demolished to make way for the bank building.
This is the Schine, originally the Grand. It’s in the same neighborhood as the Cinema Plaza, but I’m not sure if it’s the same theater:
5/6/71
Another chunk of Malone’s Main Street is disappearing. This time, however, the removal is not because of fire, but represents a progressive step in the downtown picture. Being razed by a professional demolition crew are the former Schine’s Theater, idle for many years, and the block west of the theater, a three story brick front structure which formerly housed businesses on the ground floor and apartments overhead. In their place will be an ultra-modern bank building, the new home of Farmers National Bank, which is now on the opposite side of the street at the corner of Pearl and East Main.
Ironically, the buildings being demolished to make way for the new bank adjoin the business areas which were ravaged and scarred by fires last December and January. The block immediately adjacent to the demolition area was spared major fire damage, but smoke and water damage forced the occupants temporarily to vacate. All are now back in business. Next to them, continuing to the intersection of Main and Howard Place and up Howard to Elm street, stand the ruins of buildings destroyed by the two conflagrations.
Through the day the south side of Main Street is heavily populated with sidewalk superintendents, watching the power shovel of a huge crane open its cavernous jaws and take mammoth bites out of the buildings, working from the top down. They watch demolition workers slit the three-story wall between the theater and the adjoining block on the east side. For many of the older sidewalk superintendents, the demolition of the theater stirs fond memories of days when a dime took them into the show and a bag of popcorn could be bought for a nickel at the mobile, hand-operated machine outside the theater.
The theater, then called the Grand Theater, was the place for entertainment. It was filled every Saturday afternoon by popcorn-eating kids, watching the Saturday serial and the Western that was nearly always the feature.
I work for JS Cinemas Inc. at the American Theater in Canton, NY and the Plaza Theater was open right up until the roof caved in. The damage was too much to repair and it was demolished last year sometime.
The year before the roof collapsed, I saw the Plaza theatre. It had already been forced to close but a sign appeared on the building. “Free to good new owner” or something to that affect. A year the building was gone so I asked the owner of a local restaurant what happened to the theatre. She informed me the roof caved in and the remaining portion of the theatre was demolished by the city. Malone has a fair size population base but no theatre nearby. All you entrepeneurs take note.