The latest I’ve read from December 2016 says the plan is to keep the façade of the Playhouse but to construct a different theater inside instead of restoring the interior:
Wow, back in the 90’s I’d walk past the sort of sealed up parts of the exterior of the façade along the sidewalk and wonder if there had been stores or something there, and if you look at the photo from the 1920’s it turns out they were storefronts.
For a year or so in 2014, the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-in, now in Palmetto Bay near the Deering Estate, was located in the parking lot behind the Playhouse:
The Palmetto Bay location is amongst a cluster of businesses around an intersection in an otherwise residential area, including a Starbucks and a Sir Pizza across the street, two gas stations, a Subway, and a Farm Store next door. Getting here from the north can be a nice drive down Old Cutler Road.
The Deering Estate, open to the public, is the original building in the area and is one of the oldest structures in the county.
I remember there were a few artistic-looking perhaps Roman-like chunks of demolished Holsum Bakery architecture on display as a tribute to the former bakery on the floor of the lobby of the Bakery Centre shopping mall. They were removed by the time the Bakery Centre closed and I don’t know what became of them.
Btw, before 1927 South Miami was called Larkins, so old sources of information regarding the Riviera might list it under that town.
I remember there were a few artistic-looking perhaps Roman-like chunks of demolished Holsum Bakery architecture on display as a tribute on the floor of the lobby of the Bakery Centre shopping mall. Perhaps they had been part of the Riviera’s façade? They were removed by the time the Bakery Centre closed and I don’t know what became of them.
A Miami New Times article about historic buildings in the Miami area that were not saved mentions that the University of Miami School of Architecture suggested plans to incorporate the bakery into the design of the Bakery Centre, but that did not happen.
In 2005 this address became the northwest corner of the Town of Cutler Bay.
This page could be listed under Cutler Bay if moving it will not cause existing comments to be deleted.
Would moving it make the theater unfindable on Cinema Treasures to people who remember the area as a part of unincorporated Miami (Dade County) back when the theater was open?
If you look at the Best Buy from the 11941 South Dixie Highway angle on Google Street View on the Google Maps website then change the image to Nov 2007, an Azhar’s Oriental Rugs is where the Best Buy will later be.
Also what I remember back in the early 1990’s as being a blank marquee at the entrance to the parking lot by South Dixie Highway is the rug store’s sign on the left of the 2007 Street View image, then the Best Buy sign today.
I’ve seen a photo from the theater’s early days where it is a stand alone building with that marquee out by the highway, so the shopping center must have later been built on either side of it.
The theater’s address is correct based on old phone books but the address of the Best Buy is 11905 so the buildings may have been renumbered as businesses came and went.
The shopping center that the former theater was in is now on the western border of the Village of Pinecrest, which incorporated in 1996. This area was never part of the City of South Miami, which ends at SW 88th Street (Kendall Drive).
A copy of this photo from 1927, signed by photographer Verne O. Williams, hangs in the main hallway of South Miami City Hall along with many other interesting photos from the early years of South Miami.
Perhaps this is something like the view of the Riviera that passengers on the Florida East Coast Railway would have had while passing by on their way to or from Key West.
The FEC tracks were on the opposite side of South Dixie Highway from the Riviera where the elevated Metrorail that ends at Dadeland South is today.
Perhaps this is something like the view of the Riviera that passengers on the Florida East Coast Railway would have had while passing by on their way to or from Key West.
The FEC tracks were on the opposite side of South Dixie Highway from the Riviera where the elevated Metrorail that ends at Dadeland South is today.
In a photo of an overhead shot of the bakery property from February 7th, 1956 I found on page 126 in the South Miami chapter of the book “Coral Gables“ by Seth H. Bramson, the building that matches the former Riviera’s architecture looks to be at the northeast corner of SW 58th Avenue and South Dixie Highway with the rest of the bakery factory behind it. The building that is currently a Tire Kingdom car repair shop is to the right of the bakery/ex-Riviera across 58th in the photo but with a solid wall as the garage bays were yet to be installed.
I assume this Riviera would have been South Miami’s first cinema, since I have not heard of any previous. It also would have been a virtual contemporary of Coral Gables’ first cinema, the Dream Theater.
On the South Miami page of a “Remembering Old Miami” blog, a person posting on March 10th, 2016 says they had worked for the Holsum bakery from 1967-1970 and “used to go and explore the attic area of the old theater section of the bakery back then. It still had a lot of stage props stored up there”. … This reminds me I once heard the Riviera had sometimes also hosted live performances.
I vaguely remember hearing a story about a nice organ that had been obtained to provide music for the Riviera that then didn’t get to be used due to the hurricane, though I don’t have the details or know for sure if this happened.
The entrance to the AMC Bakery Centre 7 faced Red Road, approximately opposite to the intersection of Red Road and San Ignacio Avenue. (If you were to stand back then in front of what is now Shula’s 347 Grill at 6915 Red Road, Coral Gables and looked across Red Road, you would have seen the theater entrance.)
There was several feet of open tiled space between the sidewalk and the entrance that was slightly lower than the sidewalk. You’d go down maybe three steps then walk through the open space flanked by movie poster boxes on the angled side walls to reach the front doors.
The marquee was a tall sign on the corner of South Dixie Highway and Red Road, on the edge of what was the Bakery Center parking lot across Red Road from what is still Wendy’s. The former parking lot is now filled in by The Shops at Sunset Place.
Google says it is “permanently closed”. No longer listed in Miami Herald movie times. Facebook link mentioned by Al Alvarez no longer available. Couldn’t find movie times online.
A copy of the photo above is part of a collage of historic Cleveland photos adorning a stone bench that is on the sidewalk next to Quicken Loans Arena on East 6th Street as you walk towards Bolivar Road and Progressive Field (where the Indians play ball).
That copy of the photo has a handwritten caption at the bottom: “Cleveland’s first nickelodeon Ontario St., across from the old market house, 1913 (CP)”.
Wow, the address of where the Alvin had been is nearby the bench (assuming today’s address scheme is the same as 1913) if you make a right from East 6th Street onto Bolivar Road or Eagle Avenue and walk to Ontario Street. (Nothing there now.)
I have uploaded photos of a plaque set in the sidewalk at the theatre’s entrance commemorating the Esquire’s 1987 victory in court over the fast food chain.
I visited the theater in August on my “Indiana-Ohio Trip 2016”.
If this theater was in the corner of the L-shaped shopping center it has been a church, Iglesia Internacional de la Gracia de Dios, for several years or more.
The church address matches 8546 Bird Road and to me looks like the only storefront that could have been a cinema. I walked by last night on my way to observe the death of Fidel Castro celebrations along Bird Road by the La Carreta restaurant in front of the shopping center, and remembered the church being there when I last walked by years ago.
“CBS This Morning” did a report about the Alamo chain and the opening of this, the 25th Alamo Drafthouse, including an interview with founder Tim League which aired on October 29, 2016:
Gary Dubler: Yes, I love hearing such stories and details especially of theaters I did not get to experience, and I hope you share more. Each of the Dade County theaters you mention also have their own pages and comments sections here on Cinema Treasures.
The latest I’ve read from December 2016 says the plan is to keep the façade of the Playhouse but to construct a different theater inside instead of restoring the interior:
“To Be or Not to Be (small): Is Size Key to Grove Playhouse Revival?”
“Coconut Grove Playhouse Restoration Plans are B.S., Preservationists Say”
I have uploaded photos of a historical marker that was placed next to the Playhouse entrance sometime in the past year or so.
Coconut Grove Playhouse Foundation website.
Wow, back in the 90’s I’d walk past the sort of sealed up parts of the exterior of the façade along the sidewalk and wonder if there had been stores or something there, and if you look at the photo from the 1920’s it turns out they were storefronts.
For a year or so in 2014, the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-in, now in Palmetto Bay near the Deering Estate, was located in the parking lot behind the Playhouse:
“Blue Starlite Drive-in Finds New Home at Old Coconut Grove Playhouse“
The Palmetto Bay location is amongst a cluster of businesses around an intersection in an otherwise residential area, including a Starbucks and a Sir Pizza across the street, two gas stations, a Subway, and a Farm Store next door. Getting here from the north can be a nice drive down Old Cutler Road.
The Deering Estate, open to the public, is the original building in the area and is one of the oldest structures in the county.
Cinema Treasures page for the original Austin, TX location.
Blue Starlite in the media page.
Newspaper Articles:
At current Palmetto Bay location:
“Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-in Invokes Nostalgia in New Palmetto Bay Location”
“The Blue Starlite Urban Drive-in Gets New Home on Old Cutler Road“
When it was at Kennedy Park:
“Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive-in‘s ‘Blue Starlite By The Bay‘ at Kennedy Park”
When it was behind Coconut Grove Playhouse:
“Blue Starlite Drive-in Finds New Home at Old Coconut Grove Playhouse“
When it first opened in Wynwood:
“Blue Starlite Miami Urban Drive-in Announces Grand Opening”
“Boutique Drive-in Movie Theater to Open in Wynwood”
“Blue Starlite Miami Urban Drive-in Opening: Inside Wynwood‘s New Vintage Movie Theater”
When it’s at Virginia Key:
“Blue Starlite Drive-in Theater Expands to Virginia Key Beach”
Blue Starlite’s webpage for summers in Colorado.
I remember there were a few artistic-looking perhaps Roman-like chunks of demolished Holsum Bakery architecture on display as a tribute to the former bakery on the floor of the lobby of the Bakery Centre shopping mall. They were removed by the time the Bakery Centre closed and I don’t know what became of them.
Perhaps they had been part of the original Riviera Theatre?
Btw, before 1927 South Miami was called Larkins, so old sources of information regarding the Riviera might list it under that town.
I remember there were a few artistic-looking perhaps Roman-like chunks of demolished Holsum Bakery architecture on display as a tribute on the floor of the lobby of the Bakery Centre shopping mall. Perhaps they had been part of the Riviera’s façade? They were removed by the time the Bakery Centre closed and I don’t know what became of them.
A Miami New Times article about historic buildings in the Miami area that were not saved mentions that the University of Miami School of Architecture suggested plans to incorporate the bakery into the design of the Bakery Centre, but that did not happen.
In 2005 this address became the northwest corner of the Town of Cutler Bay.
This page could be listed under Cutler Bay if moving it will not cause existing comments to be deleted.
Would moving it make the theater unfindable on Cinema Treasures to people who remember the area as a part of unincorporated Miami (Dade County) back when the theater was open?
This theater is within the Town of Cutler Bay and should be listed there like the Cutler Ridge Cinema is which had been on the same property.
The address is otherwise correct.
David Schillhammer, former director of the Orlando Philharmonic, is taking over as the Enzian’s executive director:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment/os-enzian-new-director-20170104-story.html
What was the Suniland Triple is now a Best Buy.
A post from November 9th, 2007 on a “Remembering Old Miami” blog says “You grew up in Miami if you remember” followed by a list that includes “Sunniland (sic) Theater where the Oriental Rug place is now”.
If you look at the Best Buy from the 11941 South Dixie Highway angle on Google Street View on the Google Maps website then change the image to Nov 2007, an Azhar’s Oriental Rugs is where the Best Buy will later be.
Also what I remember back in the early 1990’s as being a blank marquee at the entrance to the parking lot by South Dixie Highway is the rug store’s sign on the left of the 2007 Street View image, then the Best Buy sign today.
I’ve seen a photo from the theater’s early days where it is a stand alone building with that marquee out by the highway, so the shopping center must have later been built on either side of it.
The theater’s address is correct based on old phone books but the address of the Best Buy is 11905 so the buildings may have been renumbered as businesses came and went.
The shopping center that the former theater was in is now on the western border of the Village of Pinecrest, which incorporated in 1996. This area was never part of the City of South Miami, which ends at SW 88th Street (Kendall Drive).
A copy of this photo from 1927, signed by photographer Verne O. Williams, hangs in the main hallway of South Miami City Hall along with many other interesting photos from the early years of South Miami.
Perhaps this is something like the view of the Riviera that passengers on the Florida East Coast Railway would have had while passing by on their way to or from Key West.
The FEC tracks were on the opposite side of South Dixie Highway from the Riviera where the elevated Metrorail that ends at Dadeland South is today.
I have created a Cinema Treasures page for the first theatre in the area to be named Riviera, which was briefly open in the mid-1920’s just south of this Riviera, before becoming part of the Holsum bakery.
Perhaps this is something like the view of the Riviera that passengers on the Florida East Coast Railway would have had while passing by on their way to or from Key West.
The FEC tracks were on the opposite side of South Dixie Highway from the Riviera where the elevated Metrorail that ends at Dadeland South is today.
The Riviera appears in this Youtube video of “A Brief History of South Miami” beginning at 5:03.
In a photo of an overhead shot of the bakery property from February 7th, 1956 I found on page 126 in the South Miami chapter of the book “Coral Gables“ by Seth H. Bramson, the building that matches the former Riviera’s architecture looks to be at the northeast corner of SW 58th Avenue and South Dixie Highway with the rest of the bakery factory behind it. The building that is currently a Tire Kingdom car repair shop is to the right of the bakery/ex-Riviera across 58th in the photo but with a solid wall as the garage bays were yet to be installed.
I assume this Riviera would have been South Miami’s first cinema, since I have not heard of any previous. It also would have been a virtual contemporary of Coral Gables’ first cinema, the Dream Theater.
On the South Miami page of a “Remembering Old Miami” blog, a person posting on March 10th, 2016 says they had worked for the Holsum bakery from 1967-1970 and “used to go and explore the attic area of the old theater section of the bakery back then. It still had a lot of stage props stored up there”. … This reminds me I once heard the Riviera had sometimes also hosted live performances.
I vaguely remember hearing a story about a nice organ that had been obtained to provide music for the Riviera that then didn’t get to be used due to the hurricane, though I don’t have the details or know for sure if this happened.
Some Dorn brothers buildings from the 1920’s still exist at the corner of South Dixie Highway and Sunset Drive, viewable on Google Street View at 5904 Sunset Drive. The City of South Miami declared them historic in August of 2005, and a bronze commemorative plaque placed on the east side facing SW 59th Avenue was unveiled in October of 2008.
In Homestead, the original small Fuchs Bakery building is at 102 South Krome Avenue and has been added to the National Register of Historic Places.
As I post this, I’m sitting in Barnes & Nobles Sunset Place, yards from where this Riviera once stood.
The entrance to the AMC Bakery Centre 7 faced Red Road, approximately opposite to the intersection of Red Road and San Ignacio Avenue. (If you were to stand back then in front of what is now Shula’s 347 Grill at 6915 Red Road, Coral Gables and looked across Red Road, you would have seen the theater entrance.)
There was several feet of open tiled space between the sidewalk and the entrance that was slightly lower than the sidewalk. You’d go down maybe three steps then walk through the open space flanked by movie poster boxes on the angled side walls to reach the front doors.
The marquee was a tall sign on the corner of South Dixie Highway and Red Road, on the edge of what was the Bakery Center parking lot across Red Road from what is still Wendy’s. The former parking lot is now filled in by The Shops at Sunset Place.
Showtimes available online even though theater still not listed on the Miami Herald’s movie times page.
Yes I believe status should be changed to closed.
Google says it is “permanently closed”. No longer listed in Miami Herald movie times. Facebook link mentioned by Al Alvarez no longer available. Couldn’t find movie times online.
The actual address according to their website and Google Maps is 3701 NE 163rd Street, North Miami Beach, FL 33160.
The theater is operating yet is still not listed in the Miami Herald’s movie times though it used to be under previous owners/names.
Wow Joe Vogel, thanks for the info!
Cool photo from 1923. Gosh, the whole block pictured is just gone now and not replaced by anything in Google Street View.
A copy of the photo above is part of a collage of historic Cleveland photos adorning a stone bench that is on the sidewalk next to Quicken Loans Arena on East 6th Street as you walk towards Bolivar Road and Progressive Field (where the Indians play ball).
That copy of the photo has a handwritten caption at the bottom: “Cleveland’s first nickelodeon Ontario St., across from the old market house, 1913 (CP)”.
Wow, the address of where the Alvin had been is nearby the bench (assuming today’s address scheme is the same as 1913) if you make a right from East 6th Street onto Bolivar Road or Eagle Avenue and walk to Ontario Street. (Nothing there now.)
I have uploaded photos of a plaque set in the sidewalk at the theatre’s entrance commemorating the Esquire’s 1987 victory in court over the fast food chain.
I visited the theater in August on my “Indiana-Ohio Trip 2016”.
Website for “Jeffersonville Monumental Memories Photo Mural Project”:
http://www.jeffmainstreet.org/downtown-revitalization/monumental-memories/
I discovered these signs while exploring Jeffersonville on my “Indiana-Ohio Trip 2016”.
Website for “Jeffersonville Monumental Memories Photo Mural Project”:
http://www.jeffmainstreet.org/downtown-revitalization/monumental-memories/
I discovered these signs while exploring Jeffersonville on my “Indiana-Ohio Trip 2016”.
If this theater was in the corner of the L-shaped shopping center it has been a church, Iglesia Internacional de la Gracia de Dios, for several years or more.
The church address matches 8546 Bird Road and to me looks like the only storefront that could have been a cinema. I walked by last night on my way to observe the death of Fidel Castro celebrations along Bird Road by the La Carreta restaurant in front of the shopping center, and remembered the church being there when I last walked by years ago.
“CBS This Morning” did a report about the Alamo chain and the opening of this, the 25th Alamo Drafthouse, including an interview with founder Tim League which aired on October 29, 2016:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/alamo-drafthouse-tim-league-reinventing-movie-theater-cinema-experience/
Gary Dubler: Yes, I love hearing such stories and details especially of theaters I did not get to experience, and I hope you share more. Each of the Dade County theaters you mention also have their own pages and comments sections here on Cinema Treasures.
Starting in December of 2011, this became the location of The Movie Theater Church:
http://www.indymtc.com/#/who-we-are/our-name