Howell Theatre
109 St Johns Avenue,
Palatka,
FL
32177
109 St Johns Avenue,
Palatka,
FL
32177
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Florida State Theaters Inc., Paramount Pictures Inc.
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Located on Lemon Street (today St Johns Avenue), the Howell Theatre dates back to at least September 1907. In the 1940’s the Howell Theatre was operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. through their subsidiary E.J. Sparks. By 1950 it was operated by Florida State Theatres Inc. The Howell Theatre operated into the 1960’s or later.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
The Howell Theater was on Lemon Street, not Lemon Lane, also the Black people had to come in off First street and had to go upstairs and the Whites came in off Lemon Street. I when there many times in the 50’s 60’s. Goldfinger 007 was one movie I remember seeing there when it came out. John Wyane in North to Alaska was another one.
I saw mamy a movie there in the 60’s upstairs in the balcony of course, I saw Ursula Andress in She, Those were the old days, And the theater always had double feature playing.
Mid `30’s added photo courtesy of Nolan Richard, via the Historic Florida VIII ! Facebook page.
The Howell Theatre was remodeled in 1934, as noted in this item from The Film Daily of August 13 that year:
Palatka had a house called the New Howell Theatre listed in the 1909-1910 Cahn guide, but a 1909 city directory lists a Howell Theatre on First Street near Lemon. The same directory lists a movie house called the Wonderland Theatre at 109 Lemon Street. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory doesn’t list either of them, having only an Orpheum Theatre at 110-112 Lemon Street, and Kalbfield’s Grand Theatre, no address given.A Howell Theatre is listed in FDYs with 500 seats through 1930, and from 1931 on with 631 seats. Perhaps the 500-seat Howell was the old house on First Street (though the Cahn Guide gave it a capacity of 800) and the 631-seat Howell was the one on Lemon Street? But then I wonder what became of the balcony added in 1934, which ought to have increased the capacity at least a bit. Odd.
The August 2, 2023 issue of the Palatka Daily News noted in a “today in history” type column that, in 1907, the Howell Theatre was nearing completion. Manager Louis Kalbfield had named the house for sheriff R. C. Howell, owner of the lot he had leased to build the theater on. Kalbfield planned to have the theater open by late September.