Center Theatre
690 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
690 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02111
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 46 comments
I wish the food at this place was as good as the interior architecture. Here’s a short write up with some photos at After the Final Curtain
Summer 1956 marquee photo added courtesy of the Dirty Old Boston Facebook page.
1969 photo added, photo credit Christopher C.
I’ll attempt to upload some of our photos of our memories (of the restaurant — not the theater). How live it must have been when it was a theater.
It’s beautiful.
February 11th, 1947 ad uploaded here.
I don’t remember seeing movies there even though I was told I did go with my family however, I have been the the resturant there and the house style rice is very good.
This theater had the distinction of being operated by both of the Loew theater circuits. As the Globe in the 1920s it was operated by Marcus Loew of NY. After WW II it became the flagship of the E.M. Loew circuit and the name was changed to Center Theatre.
In a 1918 Boston street directory this theatre, as “Loew’s Globe Theatre” is listed at 692 Washington Street.
Tinseltoes' photo of the old Globe in burlesque days is a good one! However, the date of it should be “circa-1945” not “1955”. By 1955 its burlesque days were over and it had been renamed the Center Theater and was under management of E.M. Loew.
High winds yesterday in Boston blew an ancient black iron shutter off of the rear stage wall of the former Center Theater yesterday, injuring a passerby down below on Knapp Street.
I’ll pop in next time I’m in town, camera in hand, thanks.
The cuisine there is typical of any large Asian restaurant. And it’s not that expensive.
Is the food good enough to go in and see the auditorium?
The old Globe Theatre was renamed Center Theatre on Feb. 18, 1947 according to Don King’s Boston theaters history book. It was purchased by E.M.Loew and remodeled.
I forgot to include in the above list of Marcus Loew theaters in Boston in 1921 a theater simply listed as “Loew’s Theatre” at 530 Dudley Street in Roxbury.
As pointed out above in a June 2005 posting, this theater was operated by Marcus Loew for awhile before eventually being taken over by “the other Loew”, E.M. In a 1921 list of Boston theaters from a Boston city directory, it is listed as Loew’s Globe Theatre, 692 Washington St. Other Marcus Loew houses at that time in Boston were the Orpheum at 413 Washington St., and the New Columbia Theatre at 980 Washington St. in the South End.
More 2009 photos of the former Centre: 1, 2, 3
Lost’s August 1973 photo shows that Chinese films were being shown at the Center, and that non-xxx films were at the Stuart. It looks like the marquee of the Pilgrim reads “Burlesk” but I’m not certain. Between the Stuart and the Center there was a large adult bookstore. By 1973 this area was at the height of its infamy as the “Combat Zone”, although it was peaceful during the daytime.
In ken mc’s photo from August 1980, not only is this theater still open, but also the Pussycat next to it, as well as the Pilgrim up the street, plus the Publix across from the Pilgrim, plus even the former RKO Boston/Cinerama in the far background. A nice photo.
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cr8vde
To be fair these pictures did originally have the Century name. I was on holiday and did not spend a lot of time researching histories – I was told by people in the restaurant that it was called the Century.
Subsequent (internet) research has discredited that and I changed the titles.
If anyone knows better then please post …. !!!!
The 2 photo links which Ian posted above have the correct names for this theatre: Globe, Center and Pagoda. It was never called the Century Theatre.
Are you sure this was ever called the Century? Everything I’ve seen says it was the Center.
Two pictures of the Century here:–
Exterior:-
View link
Interior (larger version of the picture above):-
View link