Princess Theatre

Joe Vogel on April 25, 2025 at 12:27 pm

Colchester’s original Princess Theatre was in operation by 1921, as the November 12 issue of Exhibitors Herald that year published a letter from the manager, T. H. Smith. Colchester had not been listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.

An article about the Princess in the spring, 1998 issue of the Colchester Area Historical Society Newsletter reveals that the first Princess was at a different location than its 1926 replacement. The new theater’s site had been occupied by a building that burned, but it had housed a retail store. Thomas Smith moved his Princess Theater into its new building on April 22, 1926. The opening program included an organ concert, an International News Reel, an “Our Gang” comedy, and the MGM feature “The Midshipman” starring Ramon Navarro.

The new theater had been designed by Peoria architect Hamilton Bogart Dox.

dallasmovietheaters on August 14, 2016 at 10:59 pm

Princess Theatre #2 in downtown Colchester opened where the original had burned down. The 500-seat theater was a marked upgrade from its 250-seat predecessor and was a theatre that would have been befitting of a town four times larger than Colchester. Launching in April of 1926 with a Wurlitzer pipe organ, the Princess operated seven days a week and thrived until the TV era.

The Princess hung on just long enough to celebrate its 25th anniversary closing in the TV era. Used unceremoniously as storage for decades with its attraction sign used to advertise Shelor Mobile Homes, the long dormant theater would finally be demolished.

Ken Roe on January 28, 2007 at 5:41 pm

Opened in the 1920’s it closed in 1952 and was demolished in 2002.