According to the NRHP listing, the theater was built in 1928. Listing also says the theater was gutted by a fire in 1935, but that doesn’t jibe with the 1938 photo I found. I suppose the auditorium could have been destroyed in the fire, and the front remodeled later?
Pretty sure this has been demolished. Streetview is blurry and terrible, but unless this is the white plaster thing (which looks smaller than the building in the picture), this is gone.
Was probably not on S Pine. 1918 Sanborn map shows a theater at 115 W 2nd, which is still there, and obviously was a theater until much later than that. Looks vacant, but the poster cases are still visible.
Once again, Chuck got a lot of things wrong on this listing. The front is not limestone, it’s brick, and always was. It’s painted (tan and brown), which never does brick any favors, but looks nothing like stone. Theater is not closed. It may have closed in 2012 (definitely closed in the 2013 streetview), but it was showing first runs when we passed through today. The upright is not blue, and even in the 2008 streetview it’s the same brown it is today.
Maybe open again as some sort of live theater/event space? Building recently painted, and the lobby looks to be in pretty good shape. Inside the blah modern doors are a set of older doors which have an ‘H’ monogram. Not sure what the ‘H’ could have stood for. Maybe the ‘H’ in H.T.?
Those aren’t black panels, they’re glass block, which obviously doesn’t rust. I’ve never seen vitrolite way up on the facade get dirt all over it. In addition, doing that small ‘tower’ on the right in vitrolite would have been almost impossible. Again, notice the rounded corners, and the thickness of the panels. Nobody made vitrolite like that. Finally, notice that in the pictures after it was removed, there were no gobs of epoxy left all over the brick, like there should have been with vitrolite.
Address for the Gem is 121 N Chatham. It was located in the John F. Lambe Building. According to the NRHP listing for downtown, the Gem opened December 1913. Façade was remodeled in 1923. The Gem must have been closed by 1939, when a neighboring store expanded to include the building.
Siler City isn’t a county seat. Pittsboro is. Cherokee County is not adjacent, it’s at least 50 miles to the west. I’m sure the counties were listed alphabetically. I assume the transcription is bad, and the header of the page is the two counties listed on that page.
Streetview needs to be fixed. There was an older Empress here, built in the teens. It was demolished and the current structure built in 1936. It closed in 1988.
Actually, it was gone quite a while ago. It’s missing from the 2012 streetview. The sign in the empty lot claims its the future home of another theater, which looks like a sheet metal box in the drawing, but the satellite view shows the lot still empty.
Address is wrong, and this theater has been demolished. It was on 3rd, not 2nd. Was able to track it down because the old post office is visible in the photo. It’s now a parking lot. Address would have been 10xx (on the north side between 10th and 11th streets).
For an idea of what the ground floor may have looked like originally, the Matuska & Skalicky store next door was built to what looks like an identical design in 1909. Of course the storefront has been replaced, maybe around 1960, but the framing is original.
Description needs to be corrected. The Victory described has been demolished, and was downtown. There was probably no theater at all for at least a few years, and then they built this metal shed at a different address. Probably ought to split the listing.
Website is dead. New one appears to be: https://sites.google.com/view/windomstatetheater, and of course it has a FB page. The marquee is back up, looking less like it got thrown down a flight of stairs. Anyone know why the entire center of the façade is such a mess? Looks like it happened many years ago.
Was there over Memorial Day, and there was a sign saying the theater opens in June. Not sure when the season closes. Please adjust the streetview so it isn’t just a picture of a truck.
Streetview definitely wrong on this one. I suspect the address should be somewhere on E Main, because the small downtown was there. Almost certainly demolished.
According to the NRHP listing, the theater was built in 1928. Listing also says the theater was gutted by a fire in 1935, but that doesn’t jibe with the 1938 photo I found. I suppose the auditorium could have been destroyed in the fire, and the front remodeled later?
Pretty sure this has been demolished. Streetview is blurry and terrible, but unless this is the white plaster thing (which looks smaller than the building in the picture), this is gone.
Currently houses the post office to the left, auditorium was to the right with entry through a door on the back corner.
According to history on the website, the building was a livery stable, then a dealership, then a roller rink for one year (1933), then a theater.
Was probably not on S Pine. 1918 Sanborn map shows a theater at 115 W 2nd, which is still there, and obviously was a theater until much later than that. Looks vacant, but the poster cases are still visible.
New website is higginsvilledavis.com. Prices are pretty high for a small town, $9 for adults.
Once again, Chuck got a lot of things wrong on this listing. The front is not limestone, it’s brick, and always was. It’s painted (tan and brown), which never does brick any favors, but looks nothing like stone. Theater is not closed. It may have closed in 2012 (definitely closed in the 2013 streetview), but it was showing first runs when we passed through today. The upright is not blue, and even in the 2008 streetview it’s the same brown it is today.
Maybe open again as some sort of live theater/event space? Building recently painted, and the lobby looks to be in pretty good shape. Inside the blah modern doors are a set of older doors which have an ‘H’ monogram. Not sure what the ‘H’ could have stood for. Maybe the ‘H’ in H.T.?
Those aren’t black panels, they’re glass block, which obviously doesn’t rust. I’ve never seen vitrolite way up on the facade get dirt all over it. In addition, doing that small ‘tower’ on the right in vitrolite would have been almost impossible. Again, notice the rounded corners, and the thickness of the panels. Nobody made vitrolite like that. Finally, notice that in the pictures after it was removed, there were no gobs of epoxy left all over the brick, like there should have been with vitrolite.
You can tell that it isn’t vitrolite. Look at the seams between the panels (notice the corners are slightly rounded), and all the rust.
Address for the Gem is 121 N Chatham. It was located in the John F. Lambe Building. According to the NRHP listing for downtown, the Gem opened December 1913. Façade was remodeled in 1923. The Gem must have been closed by 1939, when a neighboring store expanded to include the building.
Siler City isn’t a county seat. Pittsboro is. Cherokee County is not adjacent, it’s at least 50 miles to the west. I’m sure the counties were listed alphabetically. I assume the transcription is bad, and the header of the page is the two counties listed on that page.
Address is wrong. This is at 27 S Main. It’s gotten a really ugly remodel, and is now a one story building with an ugly canopy across the front.
Long gone, needs to be listed as demolished.
Streetview needs to be fixed. There was an older Empress here, built in the teens. It was demolished and the current structure built in 1936. It closed in 1988.
Actually, it was gone quite a while ago. It’s missing from the 2012 streetview. The sign in the empty lot claims its the future home of another theater, which looks like a sheet metal box in the drawing, but the satellite view shows the lot still empty.
According to streetview, this is now gone. Not sure why they bothered. Would probably have survived another 30 years in that climate.
Address of the post office is 1029, so maybe 1027?
Address is wrong, and this theater has been demolished. It was on 3rd, not 2nd. Was able to track it down because the old post office is visible in the photo. It’s now a parking lot. Address would have been 10xx (on the north side between 10th and 11th streets).
For an idea of what the ground floor may have looked like originally, the Matuska & Skalicky store next door was built to what looks like an identical design in 1909. Of course the storefront has been replaced, maybe around 1960, but the framing is original.
Description needs to be corrected. The Victory described has been demolished, and was downtown. There was probably no theater at all for at least a few years, and then they built this metal shed at a different address. Probably ought to split the listing.
Not that you can tell from this useless, terrible picture, but the interior is really nice.
Website is dead. New one appears to be: https://sites.google.com/view/windomstatetheater, and of course it has a FB page. The marquee is back up, looking less like it got thrown down a flight of stairs. Anyone know why the entire center of the façade is such a mess? Looks like it happened many years ago.
Was there over Memorial Day, and there was a sign saying the theater opens in June. Not sure when the season closes. Please adjust the streetview so it isn’t just a picture of a truck.
Streetview definitely wrong on this one. I suspect the address should be somewhere on E Main, because the small downtown was there. Almost certainly demolished.