Alamo Theatre
85 Main Street,
Bucksport,
ME
04416
85 Main Street,
Bucksport,
ME
04416
1 person
favorited this theater
Related Websites
Alamo Theatre (Official)
Additional Info
Firms: Thomas Bakalars Architects
Functions: Movies (Classic), Movies (First Run), Movies (Foreign), Movies (Silent)
Phone Numbers:
Box Office:
207.469.0924
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News About This Theater
- Apr 3, 2012 — Bucksport Cinema takes audience back in time
- Jul 7, 2010 — Keeping the neon lit on Main Streets of the Great Plains
Built in 1916, this small theatre is one of the oldest surviving movie theatres in all of New England.
In 1956, it was gutted and converted into a grocery store, but by the early-1990’s, it was long vacant, and little more than a shell remained.
In 1992, the Northeast Historic Film group purchased the ruined theatre and rebuilt the main auditorium to the plans of architectural firm Thomas Bakalars Architects, and renovated the second floor for a film library and study center.
The Alamo Theatre currently screens a varied mix of film, from silents, classics, foreign and current releases and is open every weekend (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights and Sunday matinees).
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
Is the address 85 Main or 379 Main? The theater website says 85. Additionally, the Bittersweet Gift Shop seen in the 6/4/08 photo is at 81 Main.
If you enter www.alamotheatre.org you get this site http://www.oldfilm.org/ which as karan pointed out in 2006 owns the theater.
I passed by twice last week while on vacation and the museum was not open. Movies are still showing but they appear to be first run only.
That vintage photo,if those were one sheets out front of the Alamo Theatre just think what they would worth today.
Nice Theatre.
While driving through on vacation, we stopped at the Alamo and Executive Director David Weiss and his wonderful staff spent quite a bit of their time giving us a tour of the theater and the Northeast Historic Films archives. Please try to support their dedication and passion if you can. Jerry
The renovation of the Alamo Theatre for Northeast Historic Film was designed by Boston architect Thomas Bakalars. Bakalars was a member of the Board of Directors of NHF. The Winter, 2001, issue of the organization’s newsletter, Moving Image Review, featured an article about the project (PDF here.) A digitized archive of the newsletters from Winter, 1988, through Winter, 2007, is also available here from the Internet Archive and Open Library.
The firm Thomas Bakalars Architects has designed numerous theaters, including at least two for Hoyts.
Reply to Joe Vogel, above: Thank you for linking to Moving Image Review scans (the Northeast Historic Film—NHF newsletter, published 1988-2007).
The work on the Alamo Theatre was by Terry Rankine (1927-2013), then living in Owls Head, Maine; and John Gordon, Bucksport architect. Rankine, an NHF board member, had an eminent architectural career at Cambridge Seven Associates. He provided the concept for wrapping NHF’s moving image archiving study center and conservation activities around a 125-seat auditorium. His foam core model is a treasured artifact at the archives.
Rankine then figured out how to appropriately add a three-story cold storage building, purpose built for storing analog media, to the 1916 cinema.
www.oldfilm.org
Atlas Obscura page describing Northeast Historic Film including interesting interior photos:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/northeast-historic-film
Still going strong with art house movie programming and other occasional community events. The Alamo is an awesome asset for this small costal town.