Avon Theater
1223 E. Lovejoy Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14206
1223 E. Lovejoy Street,
Buffalo,
NY
14206
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Additional Info
Architects: P.L. Cimini
Functions: Housing
Previous Names: Hopf Star Theater, Eastern Star Theater
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On February 5, 1914 a theater called the Hopf Star Theater was opened at 1223 E. Lovejoy Street. It was a one story brick building, with 350 seats. It closed in 1916 and soon reopened as the Eastern Star Theater. It re-opened in 1923 as the Avon Theater. It was operated by the Micheals family, that had other theaters in Buffalo
In the 1930’s, the Rappaport family took over the business. They also operated the nearby Lovejoy Theaters. (Old Lovejoy through the 1940’s, and the New Lovejoy 1947). The Avon Theater was one of the first in Buffalo to close after World War II, in 1950. It was a furniture store in the 1980’s.
Contributed by
Alan Lapp
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
I currently live in one of the upper apartments in this building…It has been many things since the furniture store. I don’t know when the second floor was added….. It was an arcade, a bar amusement repair shop (still existing in the lower rear of the building), a motorcycle repair shop (lower front), and lastly, a union hall with offices on the second floor, which were turned into two mammoth apartments. There is a storage room at the upper back of the building, and you can still see how the construction changes, with large wooden supporting beams with trusses ,extending roof to lower level floor,probably to support the screen….in the downstairs, the floor goes from concrete to wood from where the large beams set into the concrete about 9 feet from the back wall
Was this at one time also the Eastern Star theater run by future film producer Charles R. Rogers? The Eastern Star theater company was dissolved in July 1923. There’s an article at the bottom of the left column in this link. https://archive.org/stream/filmdaily2526newy#page/n241/mode/1up/search/%22eastern+star%22 Also there was a mention of the theater in Rogers' bio in the 1937 Film Daily Product Guide and Directors' Annual near the top of the left column in this link. https://archive.org/stream/filmdailypresent1937film#page/169/mode/1up/search/%22charles+r.+rogers%22
This opened as the Hopf Star theatre on February 5th, 1914. Grand opening ad posted.