Milton Cinema
556 Adams Street,
Milton,
MA
02186
556 Adams Street,
Milton,
MA
02186
2 people
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Thanks for the update. Hmmm. It must be a big back room. I’d guess the lobby/box office/concession stand area is the coffee shop. It’s a typical commercial block of the era (twenties?) which had stores in the front, a fairly narrow, store-sized entrance to the theater, and the auditiorium placed in back. The Publix/Gaiety has a similar configuration. The marquees and entrances are quite narrow compared to the theater inside. That maximized rentable storefronts.
I found a Boston Globe article from October 30, 1994, which says that a “Java Jo’s” coffee shop opened in the former East Milton Cinema building. It goes on to say:
“In the back room of Java Jo’s in East Milton, located in the former cinema, stands the old movie screen, still framed by red velvet curtains.”
I believe this business is still located there but I don’t know if the screen is still standing. Anyone been there lately?
I don’t know the current status of the venue, since I rarely get to East Milton now; it sat vacant for a number of years and still was unused several years ago. I’m blanking now on when it closed, possibly around 1990. It was family run, and they may have shut down because of competition from the multiplexes. That said, they always seemed to do a brisk business with a loyal clientele.
Why did this close? Has it been reused for any other purpose, or is it sitting vacant?
As a teenager and into my adult years, I saw many films here until they closed. They often ran day and date with Boston art houses. I saw the Hitchcock rereleases in the eighties here. Just before they went dark, I was allowed to visit the booth. You had to climb a metal ladder to get there. They ran two projectors with arc lamps—no platters or Xenon. One of the best programmed suburban venues.