Fine Arts Theater
84 Federal Road,
Brookfield,
CT
06804
84 Federal Road,
Brookfield,
CT
06804
5 people
favorited this theater
Opened on July 15, 1970 with “Z”, the Fine Arts Theatre in Brookfield, CT is off of Federal Road in the former Caldor’s Plaza, now the Kohl’s Plaza. It’s located next to an Italian restaurant with an alley in between and it’s all boarded up.
I was there a few weeks ago as I live in the area and we managed to find our way inside. There is evidence of two small gardens with plots and rows outside and some clothing strewn inside and it smells musty. There was a light on when we went inside and it was attached to a red box from the fire department, so heat is available. I don’t know what the town plans to do. There are prices still attached to where products would be behind the counter. There are old movie posters from the late-1990’s and napkins and other equipment intact. The office is cleaned out but the carpet is still in place in the lobby.
There are two auditoriums probably seating 400 each but the screens have been vandalized and ripped. I hate when vandals do that. I visit abandoned buildings as a history buff and take pics but leave it the way it was. We found the projection room strewn with film and found film canisters still in their compartments. We looked at one reel and it was a cartoon, the other was an old 1950’s movie, still on the manual reel rewinder. We even peeked through each window to the screens. Loews, the last operator, closed the theatre the same week their new Danbury 10 (Now AMC Danbury 16) opened.
The Fine Arts Theatre was demolished in July 2011. It has been replaced by a BJ’S Wholesale Club. The rest of the plaza was also demolished to make room, except Kohl’s which remains open.
Contributed by
dave
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Recent comments (view all 48 comments)
I spoke to Dorcal Associates today at (203) 674-0777 and I was told that the property is being sold and is currently under contract. Who knows if that is true, but I expect that after Jo-Ann’s moves, you will see the buildings bulldozed and the site re-developed. Apparently water is available from the Raymour and Flanagan Plaza The laundromat will be kicked to the curb and the Fine Arts Theater Demolished.
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Laundromat is now closed. The entire plaza is now vacant.
Thanks — I thought it looked like the laundromat was closed the other day. Can’t believe they’re seriously proposing a BJ’s for the site while still struggling to find a sufficient source of water…even considering piping it in from Newtown??? Anyway, the only update on the Fine Arts left for this page would be if anyone captured pictures of it being demolished, whenever that happens.
demolished………rip
Wow…did that happen today? The buildings have been fenced off and were being worked on for months…I suspect they were removing asbestos. That’s it then… within about a month of Marcus Dairy being demolished; two Danbury landmarks bite the dust.
It’s been happening slowly, the entire plaza is almost gone. I just can’t believe that something is actually happening to this place. I remember that plaza being a major shopping center. I think the theater actually came down on 7/13. To be honest, I’m shocked it didn’t happen earlier. I took a few pictures and videos. I’ll have to find someway to upload them (not a facebooker or myspace guy)
http://s1184.photobucket.com/albums/z327/historybuff614/
Thanks for those! It appears they did take down the theater first. Drove by today…looks like it’s nearly all gone.
Yep. Went by today. All gone.
Opened on July 15th, 1970 with “Z”