Peoples' Theatre

spectrum on March 26, 2021 at 3:44 pm

The first floor is currently a brewpub. The entire building had been gutted at some point and the upper floors are either offices or apartments.

Joe Vogel on April 14, 2014 at 7:53 pm

All the period sources I’ve found say that Albert Willey was a real estate promoter and developer, and later a contractor, but not an architect. This brief biography published around 1918 is typical:

“Willey, Albert L.

Born in Freeville, Tompkins County, NY, Jan. 18, 1855, son of Samuel B. and Esther (Greenfield) Willey. He was educated in the public schools and academy of the town and opened a saw and grist mill. He did a thriving business and when the oportunity rose to dispose of the business he did so to his advantage. He purchased a farm in Cuba Lake, NY and later carried on the business of a meat market in Cortland, NY. He later returned to Freeville and became proprietor of a general store. In 1895 he came to Broome County and went into the real estate business with offices in Johnson City. He purchased two valuable tracts of land known as the Allen property and the Cook property and plotted them out into residential lots. He continued along this line, doing contracting along with his real estate business. He married in 1875, Helen E. Head of Lansing, Tompkins County, NY. They had children, Clarence A. Horace M. and Frederick R.“

It’s possible that the Willey Block was designed in-house by Willey’s firm, but I’ve been unable to discover the name of the actual architect. The decorative trim on the two lower floors looks as though it might have been ordered out of a catalog, though.

adamghost on August 26, 2013 at 12:14 am

An ad for Peoples' Theatre in June 1930, three months prior to shuttering, proclaims itself to be “100% Silent,” which gives a strong indication as to the reason for its closure.