The former Fountain Square 14 multiplex is now home to Watkins College of Art & Design and the nationally-acclaimed Watkins Film School. The school’s screening room is one of the larger of the 14 theatres, pretty much intact. The restrooms look exactly as they did when the theatre was open for business. I think it’s cool that future filmmakers are learning their craft in a building that was originally built as a theatre. They’re even building dormitory buildings behind the main building in the old rear parking lot for the out-of-state students.
My father worked at Florsheim Shoes on 6th in the 1940-50s. The Knickerbocker was next door. Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the structure was gutted and converted into a Super-X Drugs. Today, it’s a money-in-the-slot parking lot, like so much of downtown Nashville of my childhood. I remember seeing the parking lot being developed several years ago and there was an I-beam spanning the space overhead between the two adjoining buildings with the name of some theatre of long ago painted on it. I wish I had written the name down. Today, on the wall of the loan company that occupies the old Florsheim building, you can clearly see where staircases existed for balconies or backstage areas on a second floor. I’ll share any info I find on the long lost Knickerbocker.
I can remember seeing the 1951 movie THE MAGIC CARPET with Lucille Ball at the Donelson at a Saturday matinee sometime in the 1960s. Occasionally, local theatres would book an older movie and charge 10¢ admission. The building was on Lebanon Pike near the intersection of Donelson Pike. It still stands but was stripped down to the bare walls and converted and bricked over into an office building in the late ‘60s or early '70s. A casual passerby would never dream it once housed a movie theatre.
I did some research and found that the glorious Art Deco building that housed the Tennessee actually opened in 1932 with the theatre space incomplete. Due to WWII, the theatre didn’t open until 1952 (the year of my birth :). I also recall that the CMA Awards were held at the Tennessee sometime before it closed. It was utilized for live events during the period when the Ryman Auditorium was booked by the Grand Ole Opry and before the Tennessee Performing Arts Center was built. Previously, the Ryman hosted all the road companies of major Broadway shows.
In his 1997 book, MADISON STATION, Guy Alan Bockman quotes Margaret J. Cain’s “Madison News” column from the OLD HICKORY NEWS about the opening of the Madison Theatre:
“The ‘Grand Opening’ of the new Madison Theatre on 21 April 1938 brought to the growing village ‘Tennessee’s newest, most modern theatre.’ For admission charges of 10¢ and 20¢, patrons enjoyed ‘new floating comfort seats’ in the ‘correctly air conditioned’ auditorium. Perhaps as an innocent portent of what would come to pass, the first feature film was ROMANCE IN THE DARK, with John Boles and Gladys Swarthout.”
The book also includes a few photos featuring the Madison Theatre from a distance.
The Tennessee Theater was also used for live stage shows. Dorothy Lamour starred in “Hello, Dolly” at the Tennessee in 1968. A friend of my mother’s dumped me and her son at the Loew’s Vendome to watch “Yours, Mine and Ours” (starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball) while she saw Lamour in person. We had to sit through our movie twice before the stage production was finished down the street at the Tennessee. I believe Jimmy Stewart’s “Shenandoah” played at the Tennessee for something like two months! It was held over many times. The lobby of the adjoining office building was absolutely incredible with black and gray marble and lots of chrome accents. Very Manhattan. I always popped in for a look when I went downtown. Honestly, it makes me ill that developers in Nashville care so little for our architectural heritage. Thank God the French Quarter is in New Orleans. Nashville would have torn it down and paved it over for Central Parking in the 1970s.
The Madison Art Center has plans to restore the facade of the building to its original appearance. Glass bricks are being sold to patrons for a $100 donation which will be installed on the front of the building to replace the original ones, now covered with aluminum siding. Donated glass bricks will have the donor’s name etched in the glass and the donor will receive a matching brick for a keepsake. The interior was divided into two floors when it became a retail furniture store. Upstairs storage areas reveal a few hints of the original 1930s decor, with Art Deco moldings and ceiling treatments. It’s easy to see where the original balcony and projection room were located.
Dinner theatre fare has proven popular enough to warrant the future addition of a working stage in the main floor gallery and possible classic film screenings but the gallery will still occupy most of the building on both floors.
The Inglewood was designed to look like the Belle Meade Theatre and Melrose Theatre. They all had the same exterior design. I was a teenager in the 60s and saw several films there, including “Bullitt” and “The Love Bug.” In the 1970s, the Inglewood became Joywood Salvage and sold used appliances. It was demolished and an Eckerd Drugs now stands on the spot.
If I’m not mistaken, the Melrose wasn’t a “twin” but a “triplet” to the Belle Meade and the Inglewood Theatre on Gallatin Road. They all had the same exterior design. I was a teenager in the 60s and saw several films there, including “Bullitt” and “The Love Bug.” In the 1970s, the Inglewood became Joywood Salvage and sold used appliances. It was demolished and an Eckerd Drugs now stands on the spot.
The Green Hills was located about where Wild Oats market now sits on Hillsboro Road.
The former Fountain Square 14 multiplex is now home to Watkins College of Art & Design and the nationally-acclaimed Watkins Film School. The school’s screening room is one of the larger of the 14 theatres, pretty much intact. The restrooms look exactly as they did when the theatre was open for business. I think it’s cool that future filmmakers are learning their craft in a building that was originally built as a theatre. They’re even building dormitory buildings behind the main building in the old rear parking lot for the out-of-state students.
My father worked at Florsheim Shoes on 6th in the 1940-50s. The Knickerbocker was next door. Sometime in the late 1960s or early 1970s, the structure was gutted and converted into a Super-X Drugs. Today, it’s a money-in-the-slot parking lot, like so much of downtown Nashville of my childhood. I remember seeing the parking lot being developed several years ago and there was an I-beam spanning the space overhead between the two adjoining buildings with the name of some theatre of long ago painted on it. I wish I had written the name down. Today, on the wall of the loan company that occupies the old Florsheim building, you can clearly see where staircases existed for balconies or backstage areas on a second floor. I’ll share any info I find on the long lost Knickerbocker.
The Old Hickory was torn down and recently replaced with a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Store.
A McDonald’s sits on the site of the former Montague Drive-In.
I can remember seeing the 1951 movie THE MAGIC CARPET with Lucille Ball at the Donelson at a Saturday matinee sometime in the 1960s. Occasionally, local theatres would book an older movie and charge 10¢ admission. The building was on Lebanon Pike near the intersection of Donelson Pike. It still stands but was stripped down to the bare walls and converted and bricked over into an office building in the late ‘60s or early '70s. A casual passerby would never dream it once housed a movie theatre.
I did some research and found that the glorious Art Deco building that housed the Tennessee actually opened in 1932 with the theatre space incomplete. Due to WWII, the theatre didn’t open until 1952 (the year of my birth :). I also recall that the CMA Awards were held at the Tennessee sometime before it closed. It was utilized for live events during the period when the Ryman Auditorium was booked by the Grand Ole Opry and before the Tennessee Performing Arts Center was built. Previously, the Ryman hosted all the road companies of major Broadway shows.
In his 1997 book, MADISON STATION, Guy Alan Bockman quotes Margaret J. Cain’s “Madison News” column from the OLD HICKORY NEWS about the opening of the Madison Theatre:
“The ‘Grand Opening’ of the new Madison Theatre on 21 April 1938 brought to the growing village ‘Tennessee’s newest, most modern theatre.’ For admission charges of 10¢ and 20¢, patrons enjoyed ‘new floating comfort seats’ in the ‘correctly air conditioned’ auditorium. Perhaps as an innocent portent of what would come to pass, the first feature film was ROMANCE IN THE DARK, with John Boles and Gladys Swarthout.”
The book also includes a few photos featuring the Madison Theatre from a distance.
The Tennessee Theater was also used for live stage shows. Dorothy Lamour starred in “Hello, Dolly” at the Tennessee in 1968. A friend of my mother’s dumped me and her son at the Loew’s Vendome to watch “Yours, Mine and Ours” (starring Henry Fonda and Lucille Ball) while she saw Lamour in person. We had to sit through our movie twice before the stage production was finished down the street at the Tennessee. I believe Jimmy Stewart’s “Shenandoah” played at the Tennessee for something like two months! It was held over many times. The lobby of the adjoining office building was absolutely incredible with black and gray marble and lots of chrome accents. Very Manhattan. I always popped in for a look when I went downtown. Honestly, it makes me ill that developers in Nashville care so little for our architectural heritage. Thank God the French Quarter is in New Orleans. Nashville would have torn it down and paved it over for Central Parking in the 1970s.
The Madison Art Center has plans to restore the facade of the building to its original appearance. Glass bricks are being sold to patrons for a $100 donation which will be installed on the front of the building to replace the original ones, now covered with aluminum siding. Donated glass bricks will have the donor’s name etched in the glass and the donor will receive a matching brick for a keepsake. The interior was divided into two floors when it became a retail furniture store. Upstairs storage areas reveal a few hints of the original 1930s decor, with Art Deco moldings and ceiling treatments. It’s easy to see where the original balcony and projection room were located.
Dinner theatre fare has proven popular enough to warrant the future addition of a working stage in the main floor gallery and possible classic film screenings but the gallery will still occupy most of the building on both floors.
The Inglewood was designed to look like the Belle Meade Theatre and Melrose Theatre. They all had the same exterior design. I was a teenager in the 60s and saw several films there, including “Bullitt” and “The Love Bug.” In the 1970s, the Inglewood became Joywood Salvage and sold used appliances. It was demolished and an Eckerd Drugs now stands on the spot.
If I’m not mistaken, the Melrose wasn’t a “twin” but a “triplet” to the Belle Meade and the Inglewood Theatre on Gallatin Road. They all had the same exterior design. I was a teenager in the 60s and saw several films there, including “Bullitt” and “The Love Bug.” In the 1970s, the Inglewood became Joywood Salvage and sold used appliances. It was demolished and an Eckerd Drugs now stands on the spot.