Paramount Theatre

Lost: The Erlanger theatre was built by Ellsworth Statler to complement his Statler Hotel across from it. It was, however, a legitimate theatre and apparently never showed movies. It was operated by the much reviled Abraham Erlanger who also built the New Amsterdam and St James (originally Erlanger) theatres in NYC. It ceased operating as a theatre in 1956. The interior was gutted and the building converted to offices in 1959. It was slated for demolition in 2003 to make way for a new federal court house, but according to a friend of mine that I spoke to recently, that plan has not yet materialized
As far as the Paramount theatre is concerned, I don’t know if much of the original detail survived other than the aforementioned columns. It had been used by Nemmer Furniture for a number of years as retail and warehouse space for their business. Additional floors had been created inside the shell (probably the auditorium space).
After Nemmer vacated and prior to being incorporated into the condo structure the building had been vacant for some time. By then possibly anything of value remaining had been removed. Also, there were several reports of vandalism a few years ago with architectural fragments and artifacts being looted from many historic sites. Apparently there was quite a black market operating in the area for such items for a time until the law caught up with the perpetrators.

Lost Memory: I just received this information….The first two floors of the Main Street façade are original to the building. The ticket booth was given to Theater Place. Also 6 of the 8' marble columns are still in storage in a local warehouse. The capitals and bases were plaster and did not survive. The original auditorium was demolished long before and what was left was mostly stripped before the buyer bought it.

I don’t know downtown Buffalo like my friend who grew up in that city does so can’t say with any certainty about any of the Paramount research. It sure has been interesting to see and read the Paramount interest that has been stirred up lately though.

“Mystery solved. I looked in my 1936 Directory, and the "Great Lakes Theater Building” is listed at 9 West Chippewa St. This would be right on the corner of Main Street and Chippewa. According to a listing of theaters you sent me a while ago, I have listing of Great Lakes at 620 Main St. from 1930 to 1955. It was called the Paramount from 1950 to 1955. I can only recall the corner as being a parking lot next to the old Nemmer Brothers Furniture store,which was converted to the City Center Condominiums by City View Properties (Doug Swift and his partners). The corner lot is now an office building that Doug and his company built a couple years ago."

Another email from my Buffalo friend.

Patsy: In 1936 the theatre was still known as the Great Lakes. It became the Paramount in 1949, but was closed by 1977, which is why no listing could be found in the city directories for those years.

At the risk of adding to the confusion, the Center theatre was originally Shea’s Hippodrome. It stood south of the Main-Chippewa intersection. More confusion. There is now a “new” Center theatre on the opposite side of Main midway between Shea’s Performing Arts and the Great Lakes/Paramount. In the photo at the top of this page note the neon ‘Cinema’(?) sign visible across from the other two theatres. That’s approximately where the new Center theatre is located (it’s a live theatre). In the left center distance the Century theatre sign is just barely visible. In the right center distance the old Center/Hippodrome theatre sign can be seen beyond the Paramount sign.
I’ve been in the condo building (600 Main), but entered from the visitors' parking lot at the rear, so didn’t take note of the Main St facade. Nevertheless, the condo is located very close to the Main/Chippewa intersection which has me thinking that it was the site of the Paramount.

Lost Memory: I just posted on the Center Theatre link that you provided and mentioned 2 other former theatres in western NYS….Regent in Dunkirk and Geitner in Silver Creek.

Either the theatre was demolished to make way for the City Centre condos (as reported in an earlier post) or it was incorporated into the condo structure. The location is a lot closer to the site of the theatre, as is the condo address (600 Main). Certainly the 620 Main St building is not it and the Theatre Place buildings are to the right of 620. Shea’s Performing Arts Centre (646) is immediately after Theatre Place. Strangely enough, although I passed the corner of Main and Chippewa regularly, I don’t recall the theatre being demolished or even the construction of the condo hi rise. Because of the vacant lot on the corner the theatre was always clearly visible from the intersection. It was the first building after the vacant lot.

Lost Memory: And hopefully my long time Buffalo resident friend will email me with his personal observations concerning the Paramount and its former location, etc.

Sam_e: I don’t exactly when I’ll be going into Buffalo, but will check out these numbers and locations at that time.

Sam_e: I should have known that you would be able to shed much light onto the Paramount location mystery. Too bad one of the photos on that link doesn’t show the 646 Main location. The next time I’m in Buffalo guess I’ll have to check out that number and see for myself what is now there!

The address in the intro for this theatre is wrong. The Great Lakes/Paramount was located at 646 Main St, Buffalo, not 620.

As I understand it, after the theatre closed several floors were built inside the structure to accomodate a furniture business and warehouse space. There was retail space at street level with frontage on Main.

RJT: The old Erie County Savings Bank was located on Shelton Square. The ‘square’ disappeared with the construction of Main Place Mall and a slight realignment of the streets. A small park known as Cathedral Park occupies part of the land where the bank had been.