Western Plaza Theater
3655 Warsaw Avenue,
Cincinnati,
OH
45205
3655 Warsaw Avenue,
Cincinnati,
OH
45205
1 person
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Additional Info
Architects: George W. Rapp, Walter L. Rapp, John Zettle
Firms: Rapp, Zettle & Rapp
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A neighborhood theater that was located in Price Hill, Cincinnati. The Western Plaza Theater was opened on July 31, 1915. It was designed by architectural firm Rapp, Zettle & Rapp.
It was still into the 1960’s and was demolished in 1965.
Contributed by
David Hamilton
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
My wife has advised me, as well as a number of other local residents, that the Western Plaza was open well into the 60’s, so it couldn’t have closed permanently in 1950. She recalls seeing movies there around 1960 and 1961.
According to the book STEPPING OUT IN CINCINNATI, the theatre was demolished in 1965.
Listed at 3641 Warsaw in the 1961 city directory.
Who owned the western plaza theatre?
Ed J
The owners and operators of the Western Plaza throughout its history were apparently Mr. and Mrs. M. M. Weinig. The earliest mention I’ve found of the house in the trade journal Boxoffice is an item from 1942, and M. Weinig was mentioned in it, but a 1965 item about the closing implies that the Weinigs built the place.
The item in the Cincinnati news column of Boxoffice, December 6, 1965, says this: “Western Plaza, long a local theatre landmark, was closed by Mrs. M. M. Weinig. The Weinigs were among the pioneer exhibitors and Western Plaza was one of the early leading suburban houses. The theatre is to be torn down, the property having been bought in an expansion move by the Kroger Co.”
The Western Plaza Theatre was earlier than I’d thought. An article about it appeared in the December 18, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World. It began thusly: “ON JULY 31 the Western Hills Amusement Company of Cincinnati, Ohio, threw open for business the doors of a new moving picture theater which is very nearly the handsomest in Cincinnati, and this is the more significant in view of the fact that the house is one of the numerous and rapidly increasing class located at a considerable distance from the heart of the city, in a residence suburb. Price Hill, whose location suggested the name of the company and of the theater, is the suburb in question, and the new house, which is known as the Western Plaza, is easily the most luxurious and complete house in that part of the city.”
The article goes on to note many features of the design, which was by local firm Zettel & Rapp. The whole article can be read on this page at Internet Archive.