Massena Theatre
65 Main Street,
Massena,
NY
13662
65 Main Street,
Massena,
NY
13662
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This one opened as Schine’s Massena Theatre on August 20, 1931.
The Schine’s Massena as of January 2014 was called essential to the downtown revitalization. The Marquee was restored and in storage as were the seats. It was to be used for meetings, live bands and of course movies. The stage area is small with no backstage area. The building is reported to be in sound condition. The interior was in poor condition. An LLC , the Massena Arts and Theater Association was in charge of the project. I’m speaking in past tense only because I don’t live here now and have no current info.
The Massena Theatre was at 65 Main Street. The building has lost its marquee and looks a bit worse for wear, but is still standing, with the storefronts adjacent to the theater entrance still in use.
The Massena Theatre at American Classic Images.
A user on a Massena forum said that the last movie shown was The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, so the closing was probably sometime in 1992. Another forum user mentioned a fire which destroyed the curtains and did other damage. This was after the theater had been closed.
I’ve found the Strand mentioned in the trade journals as early as January, 1921. It was operated by Mr. V. A. Warren, who in 1917 had operated a house in Massena called the Star Theatre. The Schine circuit took over the Strand in 1931 and reopened it as the Massena Theatre in August that year after extensive remodeling.
This theatre opened somewhere between 1914-18 and was remodelled as an atmospheric by architect Peter Hulsken in 1931.
If you click on the above Google Map, you can see the Massena Theatre. It looks good. The framework of the marquee is still in place. The image is dated November 2008.
The location of the Massena Theatre is wrong on the Google map. On the satellite map, it looks like the theater still exists. It is located on Main Street, between W/E Orvis Street and Andrews/Phillips Street.
I believe the MASSENA Theatre had earlier been the STRAND Theatre. Check photos …
I have a post card of this photo I obtained in the late ‘60’s. One movie on the marquee is the 1959 film “The Blue Angel” starring the blond beauty may Britt , once married to Sammy Davis Jr. Like a ring with it’s gem stone sparkling, the brightly lit marquees that once dotted our downtowns are becoming scarce to find. Massena was a bustling village in the midst of the Seaway and power project at the time of this photo. Ray. CharlotteNC. (formerly Winthrop, NY)
There are several views of the theater on this site:
http://tinyurl.com/ysrd4s
This was a Schine house. In 1962 at the age of 14 I visited Massena with my parents. We stayed at the new Schine Inn just down the street. My dad took my brother and me to the Massena to see “the Road to Hong Kong” with Bob Hope and Bing Crosby. I don’t remember much about the theatre except that the film broke. The cartoon was “Young Daniel Boone” a 20th Century Fox CinemaScope cartoon.