Plaza Theatre
1014 Garrison Avenue,
Fort Smith,
AR
72901
1014 Garrison Avenue,
Fort Smith,
AR
72901
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The 1940 partial demolition of the Mystic to create the Plaza Theatre began in September of 1940 to the plans of Little Rock architects Brueggerman, Swaim and Allen. It appears to have closed following a January 28, 1968 of Angie Dickinson in “Last Challenge.” Their plans are in photos.
1940 grand opening ad:
Plaza Theatre opening 25 Oct 1940, Fri Fort Smith Times Record (Fort Smith, Arkansas) Newspapers.com
The Mystic theatre opened on October 17th, 1925 and reopened by Malco theatres as the Plaza theatre on October 26th, 1940. Grand opening ads posted.
First known as the Mystic Theatre, renamed Plaza Theatre on October 26, 1940.
In September, 2010, the building that originally housed the Plaza Theater, a barber shop, a bar, and several stores had been torn down to provide parking for a new Post Office branch that was built in 1994. I was wrong in my earlier comment. The given street number is correct.
The street number given probably is wrong. A Google street view on September 10, 2010, shows that the former theater location and a number of adjacent stores and a bar is now a parking lot. The theater was only about two doors west of Towson Avenue.
The Plaza was named for the Fort Smith Plaza Park that was located across Garrison Avenue from the theater. By 1940 the park had been replaced by the local Greyhound bus depot and a DX gasoline station. The theater was a remodeled storefront. In the 1940’s it was a second-run B movie grindhouse. Adult ticket prices were 22 cents, five cents less than the New Theater, the first-run B movie theater, that was one block away.