My mother & grandmother went to the State, “back in the day”. The theatre owners had “Dish Nite” where they offered patrons dinner plates, etc. as inducements to leave their homes & TV sets and attend a movie. Parking was limited to that found on-street in a busy commercial district (Saugus Center). This may have played a factor in the State’s demise once “everyone” drove a car.
The Congregation Ahavas Shalom purchased the building some time before my earliest recollections (mid-1960’s), and occupy it today.
The General Cinemas were located at the far north-west corner of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. shopping plaza (built circa 1959) on Route 1 southbound, just before the Essex St. overpass. On my first viisits there in the mid-1960’s, the place looked pretty new. It was closed and demolished sometime in the late 1980’s, perhaps in connection with the construction of the Square One mall on the 1959 site’s footprint.
There was a drive-in theatre on Route 1 southbound, where Lynn Fells Parkway once crossed Route 1 at-grade. The theatre opened circa 1940 (according to Massachusetts Highway Dept. maps I have viewed). It closed in the late 1970’s, and the land is now occupied by a large Circuit City/Eastern Bank strip mall.
My mother & grandmother went to the State, “back in the day”. The theatre owners had “Dish Nite” where they offered patrons dinner plates, etc. as inducements to leave their homes & TV sets and attend a movie. Parking was limited to that found on-street in a busy commercial district (Saugus Center). This may have played a factor in the State’s demise once “everyone” drove a car.
The Congregation Ahavas Shalom purchased the building some time before my earliest recollections (mid-1960’s), and occupy it today.
The General Cinemas were located at the far north-west corner of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. shopping plaza (built circa 1959) on Route 1 southbound, just before the Essex St. overpass. On my first viisits there in the mid-1960’s, the place looked pretty new. It was closed and demolished sometime in the late 1980’s, perhaps in connection with the construction of the Square One mall on the 1959 site’s footprint.
There was a drive-in theatre on Route 1 southbound, where Lynn Fells Parkway once crossed Route 1 at-grade. The theatre opened circa 1940 (according to Massachusetts Highway Dept. maps I have viewed). It closed in the late 1970’s, and the land is now occupied by a large Circuit City/Eastern Bank strip mall.