Strand Theatre
4 Union Square,
Somerville,
MA
02143
4 Union Square,
Somerville,
MA
02143
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: M & P Theaters, Paramount Pictures Inc.
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The Strand Theatre opened on the south side of Somerville’s Union Square on February 16, 1925. It replaced another theatre that had opened on the same site in 1914. By the early-1940’s it was operated by Paramount Pictures Inc. through their subsidiary Mullins & Pinanski.
The Strand Theatre was demolished in 1953, after being briefly converted to an indoor miniature golf course. Its site is now an empty lot between a motorcycle dealer and a Chinese restaurant.
For more information and many photos, I recommend visiting David Guss’s excellent website Lost Theatres of Somerville
Contributed by
Ron Newman
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The Strand in Somerville was included in the MGM Theatre Photograph and Report project. There is an exterior photo dated May, 1941 showing an elaborate facade with an arch above the marquee. On the marquee is posted “Jackie Moran” and “Old Swimming Hole”. The marquee is the 2-sided triangle type. There appear to be trolley tracks in the street in front of the theater. The Report says that the Strand is at “3 Union Square”, that it’s a MGM customer and has been for over 10 years; that it’s over 15 years old and in “Fair” condition. It’s a “Neighborhood” house and has 650 seats on the main floor and 310 in the balcony. Competing theaters are listed as the Orpheum and the Broadway. The 1940 population of Somerville was 102,100.
Thanks, Ron. I’ve now entered all of the known Somerville MA theatres onto this site. Can you look up the Broadway Theatre and Somerville Theatre in the MGM report, and enter their information onto the appropriate pages?
OK, done. There was no Report for the Broadway, although it’s alluded to in other Somerville Reports.
David Guss’s article “Lost Theatres of Somerville”, from the First Quarter 2006 issue of Marquee, the journal of the Theatre Historical Society of America, is now online at View link .
Besides an extensive history, the article also contains many old photos of and advertisements for the various theatres in Somerville, including the Strand.
(This is a 17-page scanned-image PDF, so unfortunately you cannot search or copy the text.)