State Theatre
91 Montcalm Street,
Ticonderoga,
NY
12883
91 Montcalm Street,
Ticonderoga,
NY
12883
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Kallet Theaters Inc.
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Playhouse Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The State Theatre was opened in June 1937. It was very plain inside and I’d guess seated between 700 and 850 people including the balcony. It was located in downtown Ticonderoga. The exterior was Art Deco-ish but I don’t remember the interior well enough to label the style. The main floor auditorium was a work in progress. Memory tells me they were insulating it. The outside of the theatre was white tile with green trim – a combination quite often used by the Schine theatre chain.
Although I have no confirmation the State Theatre was originally part of the Schine chain, the theatre’s exterior was very similar to the Schine theatres located in Watertown, Potsdam, Amsterdam, and Auburn. Sometime before 1981, the theatre had been twinned between the balcony and the main auditorium.
The day we toured the State Theatre the heating wasn’t working but the balcony theatre was open. If possible I always try to see a movie in the theatres I visit, so we stayed for the screening of Barbara Hershey in “The Entity”. Memory tells me there were two other crazies besides us sitting in this 50 degree theatre watching this movie. Well, everyone was a lot younger in 1982, including Barbara Hershey who looked great as usual.
I haven’t been back to Ticonderoga since 1982, but I know the fort survived but the State Theatre did not. A new operator took over around 1994 and was in the process of de-twinning the theatre when it collapsed. The manager of another theatre told me the State Theatre is gone and the site is now an empty plot.
Contributed by
Richard Grows
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The State was taken over in the early 90’s by a theatre employee who de-twinned it (piggyback configuration) and was restoring it. One night, about 10 or 12 years ago now, the theatre collapsed.
In January 1945 the State Theater was part of the Kalle chain:
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Thanks for the correction Warren. I missed that “t” in the ad print.
The State Theatre opened in June of 1937. The original marquee featured 800 incandescent bulbs and “countless yards of neon tubing”.
State Theatre behind truck turning onto Lake George. Carrying a section 4 of the M.V. Ticonderoga. Undated photo credit Ticonderoga Heritage Museum.
The address is wrong. This was at 91 Montcalm, now the empty lot next to the ugly abandoned pharmacy. The building looks much older than 1937. I believe this was a remodel of Ive’s Opera House (later the Union Opera House), a brick veneered wooden structure which was built sometime between 1890 and 1895. At least through 1912, Montcalm was known as Exchange, and this would have had an address on W Exchange. Champlain (then known as Main) was the E-W divider.
The 1905 Cahn guide gives a capacity of 1,000. The opera house was on the second floor, with two storefronts below. Access was by a central staircase. It was definitely showing movies when it was damaged in a major fire sometime around March 15, 1916 (caused by someone using a torch to thaw water pipes).
70 years ago today ( May 8, 1953) Columbia’s first color 3-D feature “Fort Ti” directed by William Castle - had it’s World Premiere at the State theatree.