Dowd Center Theatre

Cross our fingers and hope things change! If Wadesboro (Ansonia) can do it, maybe we can too!

If this theatre is still there, it should be renovated…hopefully that is in this theatre’s future by someone who loves theatres and can give it TLC.

Yet another 2007 photo posted on Nov. 14 2007 looks much better so somewhere along the way during that year improvements seem to have been made by someone or some organization!

Even Boxoffice misspelled Erle Stillwell’s name on a couple of occasions, and he was a long-time member of the advisory board of the magazine’s Modern Theatre Planning Institute.

As for misspelling Stillwell, well, Cinema Treasures now misspells it, too. I’m pretty sure they had it right before. Just for the Record, Erle G. Stillwell is the most common spelling I can find for him. Boxoffice spelled it Stilwell twice that I’ve found, but most of the time they used Stillwell, just as the Henderson County Library web site does.

Also, this page at DocSouth says that he designed over thirty theatres in North Carolina alone. So far Cinema Treasures identifies only three.

Sorry about misspelling Stilwell’s first name. Will correct! You’ll find many of his architectural drawings at UNC-Chapel Hill’s “Going to the Show”. Here is link to one for The Center at Monroe, NC. http://docsouth.unc.edu/gtts/content/2868/

The architect’s first name is misspelled above. It was Erle. It’s spelled correctly on this Cinema Treasures page.

Erle Stillwell’s papers are held by the Henderson County Public Library.

Stillwell was also the architect of the Co-Ed Theatre in Brevard, North Carolina.

A little history about The Center: Wheeler Smith, previous owner & operator of The Strand in Monroe which burned in 1939 was determined he wouldn’t lose another theatre entirely to fire. At the time it was built(designed by Earle G. Stillwell of Hendersonville, NC), The Monroe Enquirer (Feb. 3, 1940, p1) reported it contained “the largest single piece of steel in this section, this being the main girder which passed under the balcony.” The floor of the projection booth was completely fire-proof so that a “fire could be built(upon it)…and patrons…would never know…”. Seats were made of steel (“comfortably upholstered in leather and mohair”). It featured more exits than were required at that time so that a full theatre could be “emptied in less than three minutes”. Foundations were reinforced concrete and steel, sunk deep into the ground.
First picture: “Congo Maisie” with Ann Southern. This would have been the film for the ‘soft opening’ on Feb. 9, 1940 with “Remember the Night” being slated for the formal opening February 12th. Smith came from Alabama where he learned the ropes, starting out as a projectionist. Other staff for The Center when it opened: Sadie Simmons, Cashier; Dunham Bundy, Jr., Projectionist; Bruce Walters, Doorman. A special feature in the auditorium were two “big man” seats for the comfort of larger patrons. Dating couples loved these seats! When The Center closed it had two screens. The balcony was converted into another auditorium. Currently all renovations are at a stand-still.

Does the theatre still have that marquee? Is it for sale?