St. James Theatre
176 2nd Street,
St. James,
NY
11780
176 2nd Street,
St. James,
NY
11780
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Ground was broken for this, the third venue in town to bear the St. James name, on April 2, 1929. The 35 x 90 stucco, fireproof structure was built at a cost of $25,000 for John Brennan by Westerbeke Builders of West Sayville. Henry Kost, operator of the Sayville Theatre, leased the property for five years to expand his theatrical interests. The St. James Theatre is located one block east of the main north-south artery, Lake Avenue, around the corner from the first original St. James Theatre, which still stands, and which dates back to the first decade of the 20th century.
At some point this St. James Theatre was taken over by the Calderone Circuit. The St. James Theatre was still open in January 1951, but closed soon after. It is currently used for office space.
Contributed by
rvb
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Recent comments (view all 28 comments)
Added current photos of the exterior and interior. A second floor office space was created and the original ceiling supports boxed in. I don’t know what they looked like originally. The detail of the ceiling has been carefully recreated.
Early aerial photo shows the theater in the upper left. The original St. James, still standing is on the left side of the main road, Lake Avenue at about 2 o'clock.
Try as I might I can’t locate a picture from the day. But, as I’ve tried to enlarge the aerial photo it appears as though there was some sort of marquee.
jackader I currently work in the building and would like to clarify. The owner since 1985 is Natalie Weinstein a noted Long Island interior designer. It is currently the home of Uniquely Natalie a quaility furniture consignment store. Secondly Natalie is the founder of Celebrate St.James – Past – Present – Future. A not for profit whose mission is to preserve and celebrate St. James history and inspire an appreciation and knowledge of the arts of our great town We would be very greatful to anyone who can provide us with pictures and information about the History of this theater. Especially regarding live vaudeville performaces. We are already in possession of playbill from the early 1940’s when it was the calderone movie theater. Thank you
It is my understanding that before Natalie purchased the property it had been used as a garage. I remember reading that when she was doing renovations she came upon the old bathrooms. It took major digging to get the minimal information which appears on this site even going through the historical society. The second floor of Natalie’s property on Lake was the site of the original St. James Theater.
Newsday Classic Edition for January 23, 1951 arrived today. According to the Movie Timetable the St. James was still open then. The movie, The West Point Story with two evening performances.
Uploaded a recent photo of the facade.
Due to Covid and what it had done to her business Natalie offered up the building for sale in 2021. There is now an active campaign to save the theatre and repurpose it as a cultural arts center.
“Save the St. James Theatre”, now in its second year, has revved up its campaign by getting coverage from the primary Long Island TV channel.
Apparently the campaign to save the theater didn’t generate any private interest. Accordingly, the Town of Smithtown has announced its plan to purchase the theater and lease it to an arts organization. There was an article in Newday on December 10th.
I’ve been in the theater and the footprint is not particularly large. In addition, at some point, the floor from the projection booth was extended totally over the auditorium. Neither of the two floors resulting have ceilings higher than a normal house which places limits on what can be accommodated. There could be no performances unless the auditorium was restored. And, quite frankly, there are already a dozen or so existing performance venue in Nassau and Suffolk.