Rawlings Theatre

The Rawlings Theatre was opened in 1908, and for nearly a decade was Albany’s leading show-house. It was listed in the 1910-1911 Cahn-Hill guide as a ground floor theatre of 800 seats, with a stage 32 feet from footlights to back wall and 65 feet between the side walls. It was built primarily for live performances, but also ran movies beginning in its opening year. As time passed it became primarily a movie house.

The Rawlings Theatre was leased and operated by the Gortatowsky brothers, who would open the Albany Theatre in 1927. Unfortunately the Rawlings Theatre was destroyed by a fire in 1917. In 1919, the Gortatowsky brothers built the Liberty Theatre, which was later to become the Broad Avenue Cinema, on the Rawlings Theatre’s site.

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