Gem Theatre
22 W. Court Square,
Newnan,
GA
30263
22 W. Court Square,
Newnan,
GA
30263
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The Gem went back to at least as early as 1911, when a storefront labeled “Moving Pictures” appeared at 22 W. Court Square on the Sanborn fire insurance map. At that time, the theater occupied only half the width it would later occupy. At some point, it was expanded to the building’s central stairway. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists three movie houses at Newnan, those being the Halcyon, the Palace, and the Lyric. Only the Palace is listed with an address, and that address was 22 Court Square.
So we have an early name for this theater, the Palace, and the later name from the 1930s, the Gem, but what was it in between? Ads in The Newnan Herald in late 1916 tout the December 9 opening of the Alamo Theatre. Local sources claim that the current Alamo, at 19 West Court Square, opened there in 1928 in a building converted from retail space.
But there is an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square. It is next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square. A July 2, 1920 ad for The Book Store soda fountain also tags itself as next door to the Alamo, and the Book Store’s address is 23 Court Square, which would be the other side of the theater from the grocery store. Those two ads confirm that the Alamo Theatre was at 22 West Court Square in 1920, which means it was almost certainly at that address from 1916 to 1928.
Palace Theatre and Alamo Theatre are both aka’s for the Gem.
Closed in 1951.
Opened November 19th, 1934. Ad posted.
acdecoster’s link says that the current occupant of the Gem Theatre’s space is a coffee shop called Leaf and Bean. Tucker & Howell’s stylish Art Deco front of 1934 has been removed and the building and its neighbor now share a rather bland brick facade. The correct address is 22 West Court Square. There’s a nice photo near the bottom of the page, apparently taken sometime in the 1950s after the Gem had closed but before the theatrical facade had been removed.
“The Gem Theater was once located a few doors down from the Alamo’s current location. The theater opened during the era of silent films, and can be seen on a 1911 map labeled “moving pictures”. The movie theater featured one screen and 241 seats.” -http://www.mainstreetnewnan.com/p/getinvolved/147
Is the Gem demolished?
The Gem Theatre was on the same side of the block as the Alamo…a few doors down. It was smaller and featured a lot of “B” cowboy movies on Saturdays (the Alamo did too). It closed around 1950-51 just before my family moved to Atlanta. The Alamo was a much nicer facility.
D'OH! The Alamo Theatre is already listed here. That will teach me (no, it probably won’t) to check such things before posting a comment. However, at least the Alamo’s web site reveals that the intro to the CT Alamo Theatre page has erroneous information, which can now be corrected.
Alas, Google Maps offers four choices for that address- North, South, East, and West Court Square. Google Street View’s truck only went down the west side of the square. Fortunately, on the west side of the square is a night club called The Alamo, which occupies an old theatre. Unfortunately, its address is 19 W. Court Square, which being an odd number means it’s not on the same side of the square as 22 Court Square would be. It’s not the Gem.
The 1935 Boxoffice item I cited in the intro for the Gem has a photo of the front, and it was in a mid-block building, while the Alamo is on a corner. The Alamo’s web site has an early photo of the theater it now occupies, and it was called the Alamo, not surprisingly. The building now has a modern marquee which probably dates from the 1940s or 1950s.
The web site also has a newspaper article about the club, but it’s too small to read easily. The Alamo Theatre apparently opened in 1928 in former retail space, and was converted back to retail space in (it looks like) 1969. It. too, should be listed in FDY.
So we have a second theatre in Newnan, but still don’t know the fate of the Gem, or its exact location. Looking down the north and south sides of the square with Street View, I can’t see any building resembling the Boxoffice photo of the Gem, so I’d guess it was on the east side, which is the side you can’t see with Street View, and one of the sides (along with the north, most likely) which has even numbered addresses. Thus we can’t be sure if it’s been demolished or not.