Virginia Theatre
81 W. Main Street,
Carrollton,
OH
44615
81 W. Main Street,
Carrollton,
OH
44615
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The Park Theatre was located on W. Main Street in the heart of the business district on W. Main Street. It was opened in 1922 with 300-seats and by the end of 1931 had been renamed Virginia Theatre. The seating capacity was later expanded to 650-seats. It was still in operation during the early-1980’s. The theatre is closed but the building is still there in use as a bar & restaurant.
Contributed by
Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The name is correct.Virginia Theatre.Theatre is spelled both ways ending in tre or ter. I and my wife helped operate this theatre in Carrollton,Ohio. From Feb.1959 till Oct.1963. It closed and reopened July of 1964 till July 1965. Was closed about a year and reopened and ran continuous till about 1985. Then closed never to open again. It was owned by William Biggio of Steubenville,Ohio from 1933 til 1963. Thenwas open 1 year owned by H.A.Weals a local Druggist. After it closed it was bought by Henry T. Myers and his two brothers then James Goings of Carrollton bought it . He then closed it after several years and it never reopened. I worked full time for Biggio and Weals. Also worked part time for Myers.It was a beautiful theatre with a balcony and another small one above that. They were not used in later years.I was projectionist and My wife and I cleaned it and did maintenance. We also managed it part time if the manager was away. It now houses the Virginia Lounge bar and resteraunt. I have photos of them tearing down the old marquee. I will try
to post them.
I want to say . The Virginia Theatre is on W.Main St. period. 3rd St S.W. is 2 blocks behind the theatre. It was on Main St.only The first theatre in town was the Parke Beatty Theatre. It started in a wooden bldg. next to this one to the west. Moved to this bldg. about 1921.
Hi! My dad lived in St. John’s villa from 1958-1968 or so. He said their was a theatre in town that used to give them reels to watch at the children’s home and he said the people who worked their were really kind to him and one of his jobs was to go pick up the reels. Brassman, I’m wondering if that was you and your wife? He loved that theatre and it was a bright spot in his childhood.
Noting Brassman’s second comment earlier, about the Parke Beatty Theatre having moved into this building around 1921, I think the 650-seat Park Theatre listed in the 1929 and 1930 FDYs must be the same house. I’ve found the Park advertised in the local paper as early as August, 1922 and as late as May, 1930, and it’s listed in the 1926 FDY, but with only 300 seats.
Oddly, only a 650-seat Opera House is listed at Carrollton in the 1927 and 1928 FDYs. That was the name of an older theater on North (now Second) Street, which according to the 1914 Gus Hill directory had been showing movies at least that early, and was advertising in the local paper into the early 1920s. I don’t know if the Park was expanded and adopted the name Opera House in 1927, or if the old Opera House was reopened that year and the Park only expanded later, but one or the other must have happened. The 650-seat Park is last listed in 1930, and the 700-seat Virginia appears alone in 1931.
The most recent Sanborn map of Carrollton available is from 1921, and the space at 81 W. Main Street is still a barber shop on the ground floor of the three-story Colonial Hotel. Behind the barber shop was a generous vacant area, which is where the theater’s auditorium building is in modern satellite views. It seems most likely that the Park, which probably opened in 1922 and was later expanded from 3oo to 650 seats, became the Virginia, and did so sometime before the end of 1931.