Parkwood Mall Triple
1501 Ward Boulevard,
Wilson,
NC
27893
1501 Ward Boulevard,
Wilson,
NC
27893
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At the time of the Parkwood Cinema’s opening in 1968,the original Parkwood Shopping Center opened in mid-1964 as a open-air strip plaza that became one of the largest suburban shopping centers in Eastern North Carolina. It’s original anchors included Roses, Penney’s,Kerr Discount Drugs and a Winn-Dixie supermarket. The expansion of turning Parkwood Shopping Center into a indoor mall didn’t come until 1978 when Belk Tyler’s department store moved from Downtown Wilson into Parkwood Mall along with the anchors J.C. Penney,Kerr Discount Drugs and Roses and other speciality shops,which left Parkwood Mall by the late-1990’s/early-2000’s not long after the Parkwood Cinema closed in 2004. The rest of the mall has been demolished leaving two of the original anchors J.C. Penney and Roses along with the new Carmike Cinema 10. The Belk Department Store is now over at Heritage Crossing Center on the opposite end of Ward Boulevard.
The original theater was a single screener with 560-seats. It was twinned on November 9,1974 adding 323 seats,bringing the total to 883,and was renamed the Parkwood Cinema 1 & 2. By November 21,1984,it expanded from two to three screens and was renamed the Parkwood Cinema 1-2-3. Carmike took over in 1986 and renamed it the Parkwood Mall Triple until it closed in 2004.
From the Wednesday August 7,1968 edition of the Wilson Daily Times:
WILSON NEW 560-SEAT THEATER-CEREMONIES SCHEDULED
THE NEW PARKWOOD CINEMA WILL OPEN THURSDAY
Grand opening ceremonies for Wilson’s new 560-seat Parkwood Cinema will be held at 8:00pm tomorrow at the modern theater facility in the Parkwood Shopping Center.
Master of ceremonies will be Bill Bunn of radio station WGTM-AM. Participating in the ceremony will be Roddy Brown,president of the Parkwood Merchants Association;William A. Bridgers,Jr.,president of the Wilson Chamber of Commerce,and Wilson’s Mayor E.B. Pittman;Miss Irma Jewel Smith,Miss Wilson,and the Rev. Larry Patterson,associate pastor of First Christian Church who will deliver the invocation.
Executives of Stewart and Everett Theatres,Inc.,which owns the new movie house will attend the opening ceremony. They will include Charles B. Trexler,president;Eddie Morris,advertising manager for the company,and W.W. Cunningham,eastern division manager. Phil Wicker,president of Standard Theater Supply Company;John Shaver,sound engineer for Carolina Sound Equipment and Service Company of Charlotte;and Dean Phillips,manager of the Charlotte branch of Standard Theater Supply Company of Charlotte and Greensboro will also be special guests. They will represent the companies who installed the majority of equipment for the Parkwood Cinema.
In addition,managers of film companies have been invite. According to Haywood Brown,manager of the Center Theatre,who will also be the manager of the new Parkwood Cinema. A select group of local people has been invited to the grand opening to view Paramount’s “The Odd Couple” starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau.
The Cinema is located in the Western section of the Parkwood Shopping Center next to N.C. Highway 42/Tarboro Street exit facing Ward Boulevard. Several hundred “front door” parking spaces are available for patrons. A special 54-seat smoking section is included in the new facility. In this section,patrons may watch the movie on the 40-foot wide screen and smoke all at the same time. The smoke will rise overhead through specially installed smoking vents.
The theater,first of its hype to be constructed in North Carolina,is 127 feet in length and 60 feet wide,and is decorated in gold and pine-green olive. The Parkwood Cinema features a comfortable lounge,lobby,refreshment center,new deluxe push-back seats and the most modern sound and projection equipment. Regular showing times will be for two matinee showings and three evening shows with the last showing at 10:00pm. The Cinema will have matinees daily.
After the grand opening showing of “The Odd Couple”,the coming attractions to the Parkwood Cinema will be “Bandolero”,“Prudence And The Pill”,along with “The Detective”,“With Six You Get Eggroll”, “How Sweet It Is”,and “The Swimmer”. Other coming attractions coming soon will be the epic spectacles “The Bible”,“Far From The Madding Crowd”,and “Oliver!”
From the November 9,1974 edition of The Wilson Daily Times:
CINEMA II OPENS IN PARKWOOD
Parkwood Cinema II,after five months of construction, opened Friday night next to Cinema I as Wilson’s first-ever twin theater. Owned and operated under Charlotte-based Stewart and Everett Theatres.
The new 323-seat theater is connected to Cinema I. Haywood Brown will manage both theaters. Featuring Polaris-type chairs with deep cushioning on the seats and arm rests,the new theater will have different hours than Cinema I. Brown says continous showings will be run daily with three matinee showings and two evening showings. Patrons will enter both theaters through the same doors,but Cinema II goes will exit through separated doors facing the entry door to Cinema I auditorium. Concessions will be brought at the same stand as will tickets but there will be different openings for ticket purchases at the booth.
The decor is a mixture of light and dark blue carpeting in the hallway of the new theater which features a 17 x 35 foot screen. There will be separate bathroom facilities and one for handicapped persons. The opening attraction for the grand opening of the Parkwood Cinema 1 & 2 will be in Auditorium One will be “Death Wish” starring Charles Bronson. In Auditorium Two will be “For Pete’s Sack” starring Barbra Streisand. The coming attractions will be “The No Mercy Man”,“The Harrad Summer”,“Chinatown”,and “Earthquake!”
At the time of the Parkwood Cinema’s opening in 1967 Parkwood Shopping Center was an open-air shopping center anchored by J. C. Penney, Rose’s and a Winn-Dixie supermarket. The Parkwood Cinema went to three screens in 1978 simultaneously with the conversion of Parkwood Shopping Center into Parkwood Mall. Parkwood Cinema 3 outlasted all of the original anchors except Penneys; the current Rose’s in the mall (now Wilson Mall) was built in 1978 as Belk(-Tyler) Department Store, which left Parkwood Mall not long after Parkwood Cinema 3 closed.
The Parkwood Cinema was opened as a single-screen theater by Stewart & Everett Theatres in 1967, a second screen added on about 1975 (Parkwood Cinema 1 & 2), and a third screen added (by dividing the original auditorium in half) by 1978 (Parkwood Cinema 1-2-3).
In 2006 Carmike Cinemas built a new multiplex, the Carmike 10, on the Ward Boulevard (front) side of the mall. The Carmike 10 was originally proposed for the Heritage Crossing shopping center on Raleigh Road Parkway at Airport Road, but instead was built as part of a renovation of Parkwood Mall (renamed Wilson Mall). The old Parkwood Cinema was demolished and replaced with a McDonald’s.