Park Theatre

Joe Vogel on September 30, 2026 at 11:18 am

In early February, 1952, the Park Theatre suffered a major fire which began with an explosion so powerful that it threw the popcorn machine into the street. The March 1 Boxofficeitem about the event said that the house had been built in 1937 by H. B. and Lowell Smoots, who operated the house until 1944. At the time of the fire the Park was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Alexander. The Alexanders were still operating the rebuilt house in 1957, when they provided capsule movie reviews to Boxoffice as late as the August 31 issue that year.

I’m not sure that this building has been demolished. Google’s street view from the Main Street side shows a long building with a barrel vaulted roof characteristic of many auditoriums erected in the 1930s through 1950s. The entrance end of the building is covered with shingles and fake mansards, but I think that’s just an alteration, probably from the tacky 1970s, of the original building. Google street view