Albert Theater

kencmcintyre on November 10, 2007 at 3:12 pm

There is a reference in NY Times archives to a fire at the Albert on November 23, 1907 that caused damage of $100,000.

kencmcintyre on November 10, 2007 at 4:27 pm

Scroll down to Nov. 23, 1907, it looks like that theater building collapsed after the fire, so probably a different building:
http://www.swnh.org/otd-sort-year.htm

rsalters (Ron Salters) on November 13, 2007 at 2:24 pm

In the 1897-98 edition of the Julius Cahn Official Theatrical Guide, there are 2 theatres listed for Berlin NH, the Clement Opera House with 1200 seats and the Whitney Opera House with 800 seats. Unfortunately, there are no street addresses listed in this guide. I believe that Berlin was a busy papermill and forest products town.

rsalters (Ron Salters) on February 14, 2011 at 2:54 pm

In the 1942-43 Motion Picture Almanac, the Albert in Berlin, along with the Princess Th. and the Strand Th. there, were listed as part of the Maine and New Hampshire Theatres Co. of Boston MA.

Joe Vogel on April 29, 2015 at 11:16 pm

This web page has information about the Albert Theatre with pictures of both the original four-story house built in 1905 and opened in January, 1906, and destroyed by fire in November that same year, and its three-story replacement opened in March, 1910, and gutted by a second fire that November. The house opened for the third time in January, 1911. The two lower floors of the facade are the same in both photos, so something of the original theater survived the 1906 fire.

A newsletter published by the New Hampshire Division of Travel & Tourism Development in 2012 had this item:

“Albert Theatre, Berlin- 20,000 square feet is going to be redesigned as an entertainment center providing actives for families and children of all ages. Entertainment such as 18-hole indoor mini-golf, bumper cars, climbing wall, laser tag and much more will be available starting fall of 2012.”

This article from the August 20, 2012, issue of the Union Leader has a few photos. I haven’t found any indication that the conversion of the building into an entertainment center that was then underway has been completed.

The article says that the theater was converted into a retail store for the W. T. Grant Co. in 1957. The building appears to have been gutted and reconfigured at that time, removing all trace of its theatrical history. While the exterior has been restored to something very near its original appearance, returning the building to use as a theater would require building an entirely new theater within the shell, which seems very unlikely to ever happen.

This page from The Cinema Data Project indicates that the Albert Theatre was a Paramount-Publix house (Maine and New Hampshire Theatres Co.) from 1928 to 1956, which probably means until closing.