Hippodrome Theatre
1411 Stratford Avenue,
Bridgeport,
CT
06607
1411 Stratford Avenue,
Bridgeport,
CT
06607
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Kirk Entertainment / Don L. Kirk Productions is in talks with the City of Bridgeport to acquire and restore the Palace, Majestic theatres and Savoy Hotel; as the P.T. Barnum Event Center. Volunteers will be needed for much of the restoration work please contact Don Kirk
A notice that work had begun on alterations to the Hippodrome Theatre in Bridgeport appeared in the April 7, 1917, issue of The American Contractor. The architect for the project was A. C. Kelley.
From a CT Post article on urban blight, picture #11 is the Hippodrome. http://bit.ly/mpDpmM
The theatre opened around 1914 for vaudeville and films. It was operated for a number of years by the Strand Amusement Company which in 1949 had 7 theatres in Bridgeport. It closed in 1964 and was converted for commercial purposes.
The building is still there. East Bridgeport once had 3 theatres, but I was there last week and its last use was “The Stratford Club”. (It might as well be in Stratford, it’s very close to the line). The sign there said “Unsafe for Human Occupancy.”
It’s a large building. I went around it to the back where there are houses. It’s covered in ivy. To the left side is a stairwell that’s rickety and an open window. How tempting, but some neighborhood kids were wondering what I was up to. A lot of my driving by on bicycle, jotting down notes and snapping pics. There’s a rickety, rusted stairway on the right, but that alleyway is about 3 feet wide.
If you go down from it and make a left at the corner, you can see the length of it and the height, it’s red brick covered in ivy and is about 30 feet tall. There’s a garage door there, and above where the stagehouse would be is a “Vee” roof about 15 feet tall, like a mini house, the length of the back.
I know there was a plan to reopen the space as a tech vocational / magnet school (high school grades) with an emphasis on theatre, theatre production and film making. I am an architect that worked on preliminary plans in 1999. Not certain what became of the building but it was a real treasure.
Last I knew it was still there on the auction block earlier this year. I don’t think it sold.
It’s probably gone already, sad, what a waste.
As of 7/2004 a proposal has been put forward for this theatre’s demolition. See View link for details.
The architect of the Hippodrome Theatre (1939) was Charles H. Abramowitz of New Haven.