While Away Theatre

The Whileaway Theatre launched in the Knights of The Golden Eagle fraternal lodge in 1908. The Federal Street business district was caught off-guard when a flood caused major damage to the area in 1907 and the Whileaway Theatre appears to have risen from the post-flood fortunes of 307 Federal Street. The venue played silent motion pictures on its Powers projectors. It also hosted religious services on Sunday mornings. The theatre moved from a single word, “Whileaway,” to a hyphenated While-Away, to its final name of While Away Theatre.

In 1912, the neighboring Elite Theatre launched. In 1916, Albert Haight of the Kumbak Theatre took on the While Away Theatre. Haight refreshed the venue It appears to have closed May 27, 1917. The space was retrofitted for a music store. The neighboring Elite Theatre carried on until another significant flood ended operations permanently there on March 17, 1936.

The building housing the Whileaway Theatre was demolished along with 38 other buildings that took away the former Elite Theatre, as well, in 1977/8. A highway overpass sits where the Whileaway Theatre once stood with that plan disrupting this once bustling Northside Federal Business District of the city.

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