I was a child in Lawrence in the early sixties. At the time, the Palace and Broadway were the only theaters still in operation. The Strand and the Modern were closed and boarded up as was the rarely-mentioned Capitol across the street. I remember waiting outside of the Palace with my friends (I lived in the Hancock St. projects at the time) and we were always amazed to see the light reflections on the ceiling of the theater portico from the rain water that had collected in the Capitol’s marquee. We always wondered if the whole thing would collapse some day.
The sad story of Lawrence’s theater row, like the story of Lawrence, was a result of bad timing combined with economics. Lawrence had been a severely depressed town ever since the textile companies closed up shop after WWII and moved en masse to the cheaper, warmer southern US. The decline worsened during the 50’s and by the 60’s, desperate to attract new business, Lawrence began to demolish, willy nilly, it’s older buildings to make room for “the future.” I remember when the hundreds of blocks to the north of Essex st. and east of Lawrence st were all razed. There was big sign posted on Lawrence st declaring “Urban Renewal.” What a cruel and ironic joke!)
This was all before American’s developed a passion for preserving historic urban architecture (it started in NYC with Jackie Kennedy’s fight to save Grand Central Station in the late sixties.) Sadly, we lost so much history before then, including much of Lawrence.
Jack: I saw Mary Poppins in its first run at the Warner.
What I really wish I had a photo of was the old Louis Pearl’s candy and joke shop which was around the corner from the Strand (I think). We would always stop of at Louis Pearl’s for candy and cheap joke stuff.
hi cgk,
Yes, my bad. It was the State (my memory is almost flawless… almost).
Griff
I was a child in Lawrence in the early sixties. At the time, the Palace and Broadway were the only theaters still in operation. The Strand and the Modern were closed and boarded up as was the rarely-mentioned Capitol across the street. I remember waiting outside of the Palace with my friends (I lived in the Hancock St. projects at the time) and we were always amazed to see the light reflections on the ceiling of the theater portico from the rain water that had collected in the Capitol’s marquee. We always wondered if the whole thing would collapse some day.
The sad story of Lawrence’s theater row, like the story of Lawrence, was a result of bad timing combined with economics. Lawrence had been a severely depressed town ever since the textile companies closed up shop after WWII and moved en masse to the cheaper, warmer southern US. The decline worsened during the 50’s and by the 60’s, desperate to attract new business, Lawrence began to demolish, willy nilly, it’s older buildings to make room for “the future.” I remember when the hundreds of blocks to the north of Essex st. and east of Lawrence st were all razed. There was big sign posted on Lawrence st declaring “Urban Renewal.” What a cruel and ironic joke!)
This was all before American’s developed a passion for preserving historic urban architecture (it started in NYC with Jackie Kennedy’s fight to save Grand Central Station in the late sixties.) Sadly, we lost so much history before then, including much of Lawrence.
Jack: I saw Mary Poppins in its first run at the Warner.
What I really wish I had a photo of was the old Louis Pearl’s candy and joke shop which was around the corner from the Strand (I think). We would always stop of at Louis Pearl’s for candy and cheap joke stuff.