The theater will celebrate its 85th anniversary with a silent film series beginning in December. Excerpted from today’s Star Ledger:
“The theater also kicks off a silent film series on Dec. 26 with "White Oak,” the movie that opened the State 85 years ago. The free screening will have full musical accompaniment.
“We thought this would ring a chord with people,” Brustad says. “We get good prints, and Dennis James has actually tracked the scores of the music that the studio used to accompany the films.”
Additional films in the series include Rudolph Valentino in “The Son of the Sheik” (Feb. 11) and “Ben Hur” (March 25). Admission is $15."
Found myself in the area the other day. This theater now houses Black Forest Acres, a good sized natural food market. They made their entrance in the side of the building, which actually faces Rt. 33. They reconfigured the entrance road so that you can enter from both sides of the strip mall that almost blocks it from the highway.
I went inside. It hardly resembles a theater. Looks like a decent store. The only remaining hint of its former use is the movie poster frames on the original front, which are now used to advertise sales.
Black Forest Acres
1100 Route 33
Hamilton Square, NJ 08690
609-586-6187
It’s all over for this one. Note the misleading title of the article which implies the new store will go IN the old theatre. Flemington has been touting its main street as a place to come and shop yet they couldn’t save this old theater not too far from the main street. Article is from the online version of the Hunterdon Democrat.
Flemington planners give go-ahead to Walgreens in former movie theater
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By Blair Barbieri
Monday night marked an end to an era when the Flemington Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval for a Walgreens drug store to replace the old Hunterdon Theatre.
The vacant building, home of the theater from 1942 until 1993 and a coat store until 2000, will be knocked down to make way for a 14,820-square-foot drug store and drive-up pharmacy.
The board granted the applicant, Roger Howard of Roho LLC, all of the variances he was seeking at a meeting March 6, but ran out of time before it could vote on the site plan and design waivers.
At that meeting, the board asked Howard to try to comply with some of the borough’s ordinances, and on Monday he came back with an improved plan.
Two additional landscaped islands were added to the parking lot around where the drug store will be. Though Howard did not have one island for every 10 to 12 parking spaces in his revised plan, the board’s professionals believed he no longer needed a design waiver for that.
“The purpose of breaking up a parking lot with islands is to get shade into the parking lot,” said Borough Planner Carl Hintz. “They meet the intent of the ordinance and I consider them in compliance. It’s the best they could do with a pre-existing site.”
Though Howard’s professionals added more landscaping and trees, the site is still unable to comply with certain ordinances because of retrofitting. Design waivers were granted for a landscaped filtering buffer around the parking lot and for street trees; 17 were needed and Roho will plant 14.
At the March 6 meeting the board denied a waiver for lighting intensity. Roho now complies with the borough’s requirement of an average of no more than 0.9 foot candles.
The board enforced an ordinance that requires developers to pay $550 for each tree that is required but cannot be planted, either because the site has no room or the developer doesn’t want more trees. The money will be used by the Shade Tree Commission to plant the trees elsewhere in the borough.
The entire site is deficient by 10 trees, but the area where the drug store will be built will have one extra tree. The board could not decide whether it needed to look at the entire site or at just what was being redeveloped, and decided that instead of making Howard pay $550 for each deficient tree, he will pay for five. Shrubbery pre-existing on the site was determined to be too substantial to remove to plant the deficient trees.
The board attached several conditions to the preliminary site plan, including facade signs being lit no later than 10 p.m. or until the store closes; a performance and maintenance bond for trees to ensure that any new or transplanted trees survive for two growing seasons; and internal signs in the parking lot to limit tractor-trailer movement onto Church Street.
Listed in the 1944 Film Daily Yearbook with 501 seats. It is not listed in the 1951 or 1956 FDYs which leads me to believe that this theater shut down some time in the 1940s.
This theater was popular in the 1930s with the local Italian immigrants. It was located at the corner of Hudson Street.
Vibrant Life: 1886-1942 Trenton’s Italian Americans (1986) by Erasmo S. Ciccolella, p. 132
The Lyric’s site is presently a municipal parking lot, at the northeast corner of Beechwood and Bank Street, across from the Beacon Hill Tavern, between Springfield Avenue and Union Place
This theater was purchased by Walter Reade in the 1920s. It was indeed the old Plainfield Theater, which goes back to 1889. WJ Counihan made a contract with the Elks in 1905 to use their building as a theater. He put $18,000 in renovations into the building. Opening night featuree The Country Chairman, starring George Thatcher, a native Plainfielder.
source Plainfield: 300 years, 1684-1984, pages 115-119.
Originally built as Stillman’s Music Hall. Opened on 10/18/1884 with 800 patrons paying an exorbitant $2.50 for reserved seats. Later known as Proctors (starting in 1908) and still later Oxford.
In 1899, the first full length moving picture to be shown in Plainfield, The Great Train Robbery, was shown at Stillman.
Correction to my earlier email – this theater was NOT the Plainfield Theater.
“In 1926 the Ruckle family built The Dumont Theatre on Washington Avenue. This beautifully appointed theatre, as fine as any of its size in New York city, was a great asset to the town; it showed the latest films and vaudeville. …… The pleasure afforded this community by the theatre lasted only three years. In 1929, when the Skouras movie chain leased the theatre, they ceased showing films since the chain operated the Palace in Bergenfield. Plays were presented by stock companies in the Dumont Theatre until 1930. When the theatre was closed, it was a severe blow to Dumont; the building remained unused except for a few streetlevel stores. In 1950 the Skouras chain bought the building from the Ruckle family and six years later it was purchased for a Borough Hall by the Mayor and Council. In 1964 it was sold to the Mansoldo Realty Building Corp.”
“Dumont Heritage, by H. Jeanne Altshuler (1969), pages 107 & 110
In “The History of Woodbridge, New Jersey by Ruth Wolk (1970), on page 177 she states that the NEW Walter Reade Woodbridge Theatre on Route 35 was an attractive tax ratable.
Walter Reade paid $1.5M in construction costs for this theater. The 172 foot tower was outfitted with chimes that were controlled by the theater’s $40,000 interior organ.
Real estate developer Hugh Kinmonth built the office space. Walter Rosenberg convinced him to build a ground floor extension off the lobby and into the alley for a 1500 seat vaudeville theater. In exchange, Rosenberg paid rent for his lobby access. The original lease was 40 years. The first show was on March 31, 1912. By 1942, Rosenberg owned the building.
source Asbury Park’s Glory Days by Helen-Chantal Pike (2005), page 87
The theater will celebrate its 85th anniversary with a silent film series beginning in December. Excerpted from today’s Star Ledger:
“The theater also kicks off a silent film series on Dec. 26 with "White Oak,” the movie that opened the State 85 years ago. The free screening will have full musical accompaniment.
“We thought this would ring a chord with people,” Brustad says. “We get good prints, and Dennis James has actually tracked the scores of the music that the studio used to accompany the films.”
Additional films in the series include Rudolph Valentino in “The Son of the Sheik” (Feb. 11) and “Ben Hur” (March 25). Admission is $15."
Found myself in the area the other day. This theater now houses Black Forest Acres, a good sized natural food market. They made their entrance in the side of the building, which actually faces Rt. 33. They reconfigured the entrance road so that you can enter from both sides of the strip mall that almost blocks it from the highway.
I went inside. It hardly resembles a theater. Looks like a decent store. The only remaining hint of its former use is the movie poster frames on the original front, which are now used to advertise sales.
Black Forest Acres
1100 Route 33
Hamilton Square, NJ 08690
609-586-6187
Old postcard from the 1940s:
View link
Listed in the 1944, 1951 & 1956 Film Daily Yearbooks, all without an address.
It’s all over for this one. Note the misleading title of the article which implies the new store will go IN the old theatre. Flemington has been touting its main street as a place to come and shop yet they couldn’t save this old theater not too far from the main street. Article is from the online version of the Hunterdon Democrat.
Flemington planners give go-ahead to Walgreens in former movie theater
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By Blair Barbieri
Monday night marked an end to an era when the Flemington Planning Board granted preliminary site plan approval for a Walgreens drug store to replace the old Hunterdon Theatre.
The vacant building, home of the theater from 1942 until 1993 and a coat store until 2000, will be knocked down to make way for a 14,820-square-foot drug store and drive-up pharmacy.
The board granted the applicant, Roger Howard of Roho LLC, all of the variances he was seeking at a meeting March 6, but ran out of time before it could vote on the site plan and design waivers.
At that meeting, the board asked Howard to try to comply with some of the borough’s ordinances, and on Monday he came back with an improved plan.
Two additional landscaped islands were added to the parking lot around where the drug store will be. Though Howard did not have one island for every 10 to 12 parking spaces in his revised plan, the board’s professionals believed he no longer needed a design waiver for that.
“The purpose of breaking up a parking lot with islands is to get shade into the parking lot,” said Borough Planner Carl Hintz. “They meet the intent of the ordinance and I consider them in compliance. It’s the best they could do with a pre-existing site.”
Though Howard’s professionals added more landscaping and trees, the site is still unable to comply with certain ordinances because of retrofitting. Design waivers were granted for a landscaped filtering buffer around the parking lot and for street trees; 17 were needed and Roho will plant 14.
At the March 6 meeting the board denied a waiver for lighting intensity. Roho now complies with the borough’s requirement of an average of no more than 0.9 foot candles.
The board enforced an ordinance that requires developers to pay $550 for each tree that is required but cannot be planted, either because the site has no room or the developer doesn’t want more trees. The money will be used by the Shade Tree Commission to plant the trees elsewhere in the borough.
The entire site is deficient by 10 trees, but the area where the drug store will be built will have one extra tree. The board could not decide whether it needed to look at the entire site or at just what was being redeveloped, and decided that instead of making Howard pay $550 for each deficient tree, he will pay for five. Shrubbery pre-existing on the site was determined to be too substantial to remove to plant the deficient trees.
The board attached several conditions to the preliminary site plan, including facade signs being lit no later than 10 p.m. or until the store closes; a performance and maintenance bond for trees to ensure that any new or transplanted trees survive for two growing seasons; and internal signs in the parking lot to limit tractor-trailer movement onto Church Street.
Listed in the 1944 Film Daily Yearbook with 501 seats. It is not listed in the 1951 or 1956 FDYs which leads me to believe that this theater shut down some time in the 1940s.
This theater was popular in the 1930s with the local Italian immigrants. It was located at the corner of Hudson Street.
Vibrant Life: 1886-1942 Trenton’s Italian Americans (1986) by Erasmo S. Ciccolella, p. 132
The Lyric’s site is presently a municipal parking lot, at the northeast corner of Beechwood and Bank Street, across from the Beacon Hill Tavern, between Springfield Avenue and Union Place
1935 program:
View link
Listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac (listed under Trenton).
Listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
Still listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
Still listed as part of Milgrim Theatres, Inc. in the 1985 International Motion Picture Almanac.
This was another Charles Hildinger theater.
Opened in 1921. Opening features: The Gilded Lily starring Mae Murray and Neighbors starring Buster Keaton.
source: Plainfield: 300 years, page 117.
Opened on Christmas day in 1925. Feature film was The Freshman, starring Harold Lloyd.
Plainfied: 300 years, page 117.
Walter Reade bought this theater in the 1930s.
This theater was purchased by Walter Reade in the 1920s. It was indeed the old Plainfield Theater, which goes back to 1889. WJ Counihan made a contract with the Elks in 1905 to use their building as a theater. He put $18,000 in renovations into the building. Opening night featuree The Country Chairman, starring George Thatcher, a native Plainfielder.
source Plainfield: 300 years, 1684-1984, pages 115-119.
Old 1909 postcard:
View link
Originally built as Stillman’s Music Hall. Opened on 10/18/1884 with 800 patrons paying an exorbitant $2.50 for reserved seats. Later known as Proctors (starting in 1908) and still later Oxford.
In 1899, the first full length moving picture to be shown in Plainfield, The Great Train Robbery, was shown at Stillman.
Correction to my earlier email – this theater was NOT the Plainfield Theater.
“In 1926 the Ruckle family built The Dumont Theatre on Washington Avenue. This beautifully appointed theatre, as fine as any of its size in New York city, was a great asset to the town; it showed the latest films and vaudeville. …… The pleasure afforded this community by the theatre lasted only three years. In 1929, when the Skouras movie chain leased the theatre, they ceased showing films since the chain operated the Palace in Bergenfield. Plays were presented by stock companies in the Dumont Theatre until 1930. When the theatre was closed, it was a severe blow to Dumont; the building remained unused except for a few streetlevel stores. In 1950 the Skouras chain bought the building from the Ruckle family and six years later it was purchased for a Borough Hall by the Mayor and Council. In 1964 it was sold to the Mansoldo Realty Building Corp.”
“Dumont Heritage, by H. Jeanne Altshuler (1969), pages 107 & 110
In “The History of Woodbridge, New Jersey by Ruth Wolk (1970), on page 177 she states that the NEW Walter Reade Woodbridge Theatre on Route 35 was an attractive tax ratable.
Walter Reade bought this theater in the 1950s from the theater chain of Lee Newberry of Interlaken, NJ.
Rosebnberg, who later changed his name to Reade, resurfaced the theater with white stucco in the 1930s. It was originally built with brown brick.
Walter Reade paid $1.5M in construction costs for this theater. The 172 foot tower was outfitted with chimes that were controlled by the theater’s $40,000 interior organ.
Walter Rosenberg paid $200,000 for the construction of this theater.
Asbury Park’s Glory Days, Helen-Chantal Pike (2005), page 89
Real estate developer Hugh Kinmonth built the office space. Walter Rosenberg convinced him to build a ground floor extension off the lobby and into the alley for a 1500 seat vaudeville theater. In exchange, Rosenberg paid rent for his lobby access. The original lease was 40 years. The first show was on March 31, 1912. By 1942, Rosenberg owned the building.
source Asbury Park’s Glory Days by Helen-Chantal Pike (2005), page 87