Grove International Theater
346 16th Avenue,
Irvington,
NJ
07111
346 16th Avenue,
Irvington,
NJ
07111
1 person
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Additional Info
Functions: Office Space
Previous Names: Grove Theatre, Hindenburg Theatre
Nearby Theaters
This was a small theatre that specialized in foreign language films catering to the mainly Polish, but also Hungarian, Lithuanian and Czech immigrants who settled in the area in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The only way I knew of the Grove Theatre was because it was across the street from Olympic Park (another sorry loss.) After the Grove Theatre closed, the building became part of the Irvington Public Library System. In 2015 the building houses the Irvington Neighborhood Improvement Corp.
Contributed by
Jim Thatcher
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Listed as open in the 1951 FDY.
“(Gary)Heckel, whose family owned the Grove Theater in Irvington when he was a child, connected with Roberts accidentally when he took a fill-in projectionist job at the Chatham theater some 20 years ago.”
The Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ), March 25, 2003 p022
A Robert Morton organ was installed in this theater in 1926. After it was moved to the Capitol Theatre in South River, NJ, the Grove theatre bought another Robert Morton in 1928.
Oddly enough, may have been known as the Hindenburg Theater in 1940:
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The section of Irvington where this theater was located was in 1940 [midst of II World War], heavily populated by German- Americans. Ethnic suspicions ran rampart in the United States at the time. Pressures from anything connected to Germany drove the owners to change the name of the theater to the Grove.
All the beauty of the original has been removed. The ornate building next door is still there.