Stroud Theatre

1910’s Stroudsburg was home to some store-show Nickelodeons but a group of residents there felt it needed a live venue to move the city to the next level. Architect Harry F. Weaver designed a multi-use facility to contain a 1,000-seat opera house, a basement event center and ballroom, a bowling alley, a gym, a proposed but not built swimming pool and meeting rooms. The Stroud Theatre opened December 18, 1913 with the play, “Excuse Me”. Opening crowds were impressed by the theatre’s terra-cotta work and cheerful cream-colored walls as well as the theatre’s decorative curtain. Famous movie star Mae Murray appeared on stage in the play, “The Big Sister” in 1916.

But live theatre interest waned after World War I and the theatre was in the hands of four owners in 1920, alone, with New York interests taking the venue on. The location became home to silent movies and vaudeville shows throughout the 1920’s with a live orchestra.

In 1930, the second of two New York operators, Joseph Albom, was bought out of the theatre by the competing Schuermanns who had the Sherman Theatre in Stroudsburg and Plaza Theatre in East Stroudsburg. The Schuermanns discontinued films and vaudeville moving the theatre back to sporadic live plays and events before closing in 1934. With the miniature golf craze at its near height in 1930, the operator put in the Stroud Indoor Golf Course on the building’s second floor drawing folks to the theatre.

After being vacant from 1935 into 1938, the theatre was equipped with a sound system to show motion pictures, After reopening in late-August of 1938, the theatre reopened - likely closing its balcony to patrons with a seat count of 667.

After the showing of the film, “Rainbow on the River” on October 10, 1938, an overnight fire on October 11, 1938 in the projection booth gutted the theatre ending its theatrical run. In 1942, that film was selected for a benefit screening in the high school in remembrance of the Stroud Theatre.

The Stroud Theatre building was rebuilt and, for the next seventy years, was home to too many different operations to list. However, the first tenant was the Franks and May Amusement Center. It was also used for manufacturing and lastly by a church. The former theatre turned church burned down in 2007.

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