Fields Corner Theatre
215 Adams Street,
Dorchester,
MA
02124
215 Adams Street,
Dorchester,
MA
02124
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P.S. The Morton was an N.E.T. not an E.M. Lowes. The N.E.T. theatres were kept in good shape but the E.M. Lowes were left to minimum Maint. You saw Gabby Hayew in 1955 was most likely at the Fields Corner. The only live acts at the Dot were the RATS. The Dot and the Adams had dish nites. I remember my mother making sure she went to the Dot I believe every Mon night to get her dish. She very seldom went to the Adams. It was too far to walk. We lived next to Cosgroves Milk Plant. It was between Gibson & Park St. Technically we lived on Christopher Ct a dirt road which was not an accepted St then. They paved it a bout 1-2 yrs after we moved. Our mailing address was 310 Adams St. The 3 family cold water building was torn down down years later.
Jim. Are you sure that the Fields Corner & the Adams theatres were only 10cents. I had been going to both since 1948 and they were 25 cents the whole time I went there. The Dorchester (Park) on Dot Ave & Park St was only 10cents. The Dot was 3rd or 4th run and the Fields Corner and Adams were 2nd run after leaving Downtown Boston. I moved from the area in Feb 1952 and went to Scituate where the Playhouse was 1st run and 25 cents. The soap box racers and bike race pre movie events were on Sat matinees along with a 3 sStooges short and a couple of cartoons plus a western and some other movie. Probably a Sci-Fi only at the Dorchester and other E.M. Lowes theatres not at the N.E.T. theatres. Those theatres were the Strand, Uphams Corner, the Oriental. I believe that the other Lowes were the Morton? and Eggleston.
I attended the Fields Corner movie Theater back in 1955. the cost was 10 cents and much more fun than attending Adams Theater for 25 cents I remember that Gabby Hayes was at the Fields Corner Theater and that stayed with me my whole life The soap box racers before the main movie was what life was all about
sonofmarge- the theater at the corner of Park Street and Dot Ave was the Dorchester Theatre and it has its own Page here in Cinema Treasures. You’re right, it was open later than most of the other old movie theaters in Dorchester.
i moved to beach street in 62, the park street theater was still there then, and if i,m not mistaken it was still open in the 70’s. i believe i saw jaws there, which was made in 75.
DotRat- you can contact the Archives at the Theatre Historical Soc in Illinois (Kathy): They have a black & white photo of the exterior taken in April 1941; it’s on the MGM Theatre and Photograph Report. But it’s expensive, about $50. Or contact me at ; I can help you out.
When we moved from Columbia Point to Fields Corner in the late 50’s, I thought that we all died and went to Heaven. In my late arrival, I never had the chance to experience the obvious splendor of The Fields Corner Theater. My 84 year-old dad remembers it as yesterday and I am curious as to how to get an actual photo of the building. I had trouble with The Theatre Historical Society site.
Do you remember the Strand Theatre in Uphams Corner. It was big and had stage shows. Early R&B Stars would perform there.
I can not believe this site. While looking up some Old Dorchester photos I found this site. The Fields Corner Theatre was a wonderful place. Afterwards we would go to Charlie’s Ice Cream Parlor for sodas and talk wilth the “chicks”. The Oriental Theatre in Mattapan was also beautiful with the lighted ceiling.
Running until the early 60’s? Do you mean early 50’s? I used to go to the Fields Corner area in the 1950s and never saw this theater, and especially from 1960 onward.
Having lived in Fields Corner and about 4 blocks from the theatre the theatre was up and running until the early 60’s. Spent every Sun. there until the nuns came knocking on my mothers door wondering why I hadn’t been attending Sun school. !pm was a terrible starting Sun School because the 1st movie was starting then. What a beautiful ols theatre this was.
The Fields Corner theatre was beautiful. It was a 25 center compared to the Dorchester theatre down the st which was 10 cents. The Fields Corner had a stage and had kiddie stage shows. I saw Howdy Doody an Clarabelle with Chief Thundercloud there. Also cowboy star Sunset Carson there, That was about 1950-1951. We moved from Dorchester to Scituate in 1952. The Fields Corner was at the intersection of Adams and Dot ave, Diagonally across from the Rexall Drug Store and 1 block up from St AQmbrose church.
The Fields Corner Theater was located at the intersection of Dorchester Avenue, and Adams Streets, a short distance down from Arcadia Street, and on the right. This location is where you will find the Citizen’s Bank, and its parking lot today, right next to Domino’s Pizza.
On the Winthrop Hall Theatre page, CT member Ed Findlay posted a link to a long article which appeared in the Dorchester Argus-Citizen on June 2, 1983 written by TV critic Anthony LaCamera in which he writes of attending movies in Dorchester as a youth. He refers to this theater as the “Rialto Theatre”. This would have been sometime in the 1920s/1930s.
Boxoffice of December 11, 1954, reported that the Fields Corner Theatre had been razed. It said that the house had been closed for several years.
I agree that the Fields Corner Th. must have closed sometime after November 1951 and was then demolished. I have no memory of it at all. The Theatre Historical Society has a good-quality black and white photo of the exterior on the MGM Report of April 1941.
From yesterday’s Fields Corner Main Streets newsletter:
Further up Dot Ave., on the western side of the intersection of Adams Street, stood the Fields Corner Theatre. Opened on April 28, 1924, it was quite large, with over 1,500 seats. A historic house at 215 Adams Street owned by Benjamin Clapp was either torn down or moved when the theatre was built. The theatre’s 1923 building permit lists the architects as Funk & Wilcox, who also designed the Strand Theatre in Upham’s Corner and the Somerville Theatre in Davis Square. We have no photos of this building… Surprisingly, this large, brick and stone building had a very short life and seems to have been torn down in the early 1950s. Its site is now occupied by the Citizens Bank building and a parking lot.
The Theatre Historical Society lists the opening date of the Fields Corner Theatre as April 28, 1924.
I didn’t realize it was that far up! This location puts it north of the MBTA Red Line bridge over Adams St. It definitely was not there in the 1960s.
The Dorchester Atheneum says: “in Fields Corner at the intersection of Adams Street and Dorchester Avenue, just south of Arcadia Street, at the parking lot where the bank and Meyers Deli are now”.
According to the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report form, this theatre had 1174 seats on the orchestra floor and 387 seats in the balcony, total: 1561 seats. Possibly it had a stage. It was built sometime in the 1910s or 1920s. Does anyone know where this theatre was located on Adams Street, especially in relation to the intersection of Park Street. I went down Adams Street occasionally in the early 1950s and have no memory of this theatre at all. Does anyone know when it closed ? Or what happened to the building its entrance was in (which was substantial, with 2 stores on either side, and offices above. ) Although the full name of the theatre on the marquee is “Fields Corner”, in the M&P ads in the Boston papers the name was shortened to “Fields”. I have a newspaper page for November 1951 (by which time M&P had become New England Theatres Company) and the “Fields” was still operating. The other theatre in the Fields Corner area was the Dorchester/ Park Th. over on Dorchester Ave. and Park Street. Both of these houses were, of course, true “Nabes”.