Cinema Art Theater
289 River Street,
Troy,
NY
12180
289 River Street,
Troy,
NY
12180
5 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fabian Theaters, Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Architects: Abraham K. Mosley
Previous Names: American Theater, Cinerama Art Theater
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
The American Theater opened as a movie house in downtown Troy in the early-1920’s. It had a virtual twin, the State (Rose) Theatre on 4th Street which was torn down in the 1960’s for a parking lot.
By 1941, the American Theater was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp., followed by the Fabian Theaters chain in the late-1940’s. On November 4, 1963 it was renamed Cinerama Art Theater, but the following day in was renamed Cinema Art Theater (probably got into trouble using the Cinerama name?) The opening movies for both names were the documentary feature “Women of the World” & Michelle Morgan in “Bluebeard”. It converted over to adult films in the late-1960’s when it was taken over by a local operator, John Capano, and showed them until the 1980’s. It then operated as a video rental store. The theater lobby and auditorium are still very original. The original marquee was still on the building, modified with electric lightboxes, when it was removed by the city, citing a safety hazard. The building still stands in 2024, function unknown.
Contributed by
Joe Masher
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
I was in Troy today on business. After I completed my scheduled tasks for the day I walked around downtown Troy for about two hours taking pictures of old buildings being given new life.
I wandered around taking pictures until I got hungry, just barely a block from the cafe I was considering, were the telltale steel remnants of a marquee and the curved entry of a movie house.
The building has almost totally been stripped of architectural importance, save the leaf pendant on the very tip of the building.
Here are the pictures:
View link
Vintage ads for the Cinema Art can be found here:
http://plantweed.blogspot.com/search?q=cinema+art
Any updates on the future of the Cinema Art?
The theater is advertising “talking sound pictures” in this photo, which probably dates it around 1928:
http://tinyurl.com/27zapd
Still closed. See my photos of the building http://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/7874.html
Saw this theatre while on a bike trip 2 weeks ago. Still closed of course and really hard to get around the back to see the building since it’s right over the railroad tracks.
Shoeshoe, are you sure you had the right building? Threre are no railroad tracks anywhere near this building.
Joe Masher’s description of the State Theatre says that it was designed by the same architect as the American Theatre, and the description of this house says that it was a twin of the State. If that’s so, then the architect of this theater was Abraham K. Mosley, who was noted as the architect of the Rose (State) Theatre in The American Contractor of April 29, 1922.
With a little luck and a lot of love, it will reopen in 2025.
https://www.bizjournals.com/albany/news/2023/08/02/american-theatre-troy-proctors-movies.html
Renamed Cinerama Art Theatre on November 4th, 1963, and Cinema art theatre the next day. Ads posted.