Pilgrim Theatre
658 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
658 Washington Street,
Boston,
MA
02116
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According to a booklet called “Boston Theatre District: A Walking Tour”, published by the Boston Preservation Alliance in 1996 this theatre was originally called “Gordon’s Olympia”. The booklet says:
Architect Clarence Blackall designed the Olympia Theatre in 1912 within an existing 1891 office building designed by Winslow and Wetherell. It had a vaulted, frescoed ceiling. There were four floors of offices over a shell-like theatre entrance with a stucco finish. Its auditorium was in the very rear of its block, preceded by a group of vestibules containing stairways, restrooms, and one of the first theatre escalators that ran through a former carpet store, which fronted on Washington Street. The theatre held 2500 people in an orchestra, two balconies, and fourteen brass-railed boxes. The Olympia offered vaudeville and films. In 1996, the theatre, considered the oldest in continual use in Boston, was slated for demolition.
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 gives a seating capacity of the Pilgrim Theatre as 1,500.
When the Pilgrim closed, it was the last remaining X-rated movie house in Boston. All of the others had already been torn down, closed, or converted to non-theatre uses.
The Pilgrim closed its doors for business in late December of 1995 and was demolished the following spring.
If you go to the gaietyboston.com site and click on “Photos,” in the upper left corner is a postcard picture depicting the theater district in the 1930’s. In the far left background you can just make out the vertical sign reading “Olympia,” so this must have been the name prior to its becoming the Pilgrim. Note also that you can make out the Park in the lower right foreground, before it became the Trans-Lux.
It is being replaced by a high-rise residential building that was originally to be called ‘Liberty Place’ but is now going to be ‘Park Essex’.
When I was there the marquee was still up and there was a nice vertical sign, as I recall.
No, it’s not still standing. The whole building has been razed, and right now they seem to be readying the area for a new high rise. I was there today.
I went to the Pilgrim in the early 1980’s when it was an adult theatre. They had closed off the balcony but guys were up there anyway, doing their thing. It was a big beautiful house, and the boxes were still intact. Quite a trip for my first time in Boston. It is still standing?
The Pilgrim Theatre was at 658 Washington Street, in the “combat zone” and diagonally across from the Publix (Gayety). It is said to have been called the Olympia at one time. It is not to be confused with the neighborhood Olympia at 1723 Washington Street.