American Theatre
215 S. Jefferson Street,
Roanoke,
VA
23012
215 S. Jefferson Street,
Roanoke,
VA
23012
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Rebuilt and reopened on March 26th, 1928.
Opening date: October 2nd, 1913, for the old building.
Thank you. I loved the American and still mourn its demise.
Joe Vogel. The original American Theatre was a remodeled YMCA building. The Y moved into a new and larger building on Church Avenue in 1914. Elmore Hines came to Roanoke as a baseball player I believe from Cincinnati, Ohio. Hines ran a cigar store on the NW corner of Campbell Avenue and Jefferson Street and he and Henry Scholtz purchased the old Y building, remolded it into a theatre called the American. Yes there were about three buildings north of the of the old Y and the First National Exchange Bank which also expanded south of Jefferson Street in 1925 adding to their original building constructed in 1912.
In addition there was a building on the north side of Kirk Avenue between the back of original American and the old vaudeville house The Roanoke Theater which had it’s house was on Kirk Avenue but you entered The Roanoke at 14 W. Campbell Avenue and up a ram through an old remodeled store to the lobby. The actual house was to your right with restrooms and balcony up steps.
When Hines and company built the new American in 1927-28 about four buildings including the old American were razed. The new American faced Jefferson Street and space was made available on the ground floor north and south of the box office for other businesses in the new American Theatre building. It’s been years but I believe the business to the south of the box, I think a dress shop, was 217 S. Jefferson. The theatre was 215 and the Little Mending Shop was 213 and a restaurant and night club which was under the theater lobby was 211 but all in the new American building. Today a 15 story building stands on the site called The Carillon Administration Building. They operate the Roanoke Memorial Hospital and several medical clinics.
Hines leased the vaudeville theatre, The Roanoke, in 1916. The new American faced west and so did the Roanoke and the new American was built all the way west to the Roanoke Theatre and the east house wall of the Roanoke served as the west wall of the new American which was the wall at the rear of the American stage. The segregated African American box office and entrance to the second level balcony was on Kirk Avenue next door to the stage doors to the new American.
The old Roanoke did not have air conditioning so Mr. Hines had ducts run over to the Roanoke so the big refrigeration unit in the basement of the new American also cooled the Roanoke.
Hines ran four downtown theatres for years and in hot weather the American and Roanoke newspaper adds promoted they were “Cooled by Refrigeration” while his Park and Rialto were promoted as “Air Conditioned.”
The American Theatre that opened in 1913 was probably completely demolished to make way for the house that was built in 1928. The new American Theatre had a frontage about twice that of the original house, so it’s very unlikely that any of the old building was incorporated into the new one.
This web page has links to photos of both of them. The original theater was at modern address 217 S. Jefferson, the second theater used the address 215 S. Jefferson. The building on the site now, originally a bank, is today a medical clinic with the address 213 S. Jefferson.
I just posted an Oct. 2, 1913 ad stating the Opening of the American Theatre
Joe Vogel. That picture above of the American is from the 1928 grand opening. I’m rather sure of that. The screen is not there. The camera was about half way up the long sweeping balcony which seated almost 1,000 people with the main floor seating 1,000. We use to claim the theater seated 2,000 but it as just a few seats short of that and it was in the balcony where it was about 996 or so seats. It also looks as if the lights that shined down on the three steps of curtains that ran down to the top of the stage were off. They were in the attic. Toward the camera was a large square section in the ceiling that had large white lights in each corner & smaller lights running from one side to the other on all four sides. All of the lights I’m discussing now were not on during the movie:–) Running next to the ceiling from the front of the balcony all the way to the back of the house to the projection room on both side was a long row of inset lights that looked like the footlights on the stage. There was a yellow one, then a blue one and a red one and the process repeated itself until it reached the end many lights later. Each color was on individual switches on the big switch board back stage which was on the Krik Ave side of the stage. If the switch was in the middle position, it was OFF. If it was down it was ON. But if it was UP, it would come on when the operator up in the projection room would press a master button up there. Every switch for the house lights and stage lights that was in the UP position would come on or go off when the projection room operator would hit that button between movie showing.
BTW. In the picture above, the entrance you see at the bottom on the main floor on the right led back stage and the one on your left went up steps and then there was an exit door that led to Kirk Avenue which was on the south side of the theater building.
In 1940 the marquee of the American was updated with neon that flashed. It had neon shooting stars that were blue and their tails flashed in sequence in red neon. Lightening strikes flashed in red neon on the sides and the word AMERICAN would flash red then green then red and green together and then start over. At the bottom were running border lights which were just standard 25 watt light bulbs.
At the same time Mr. Hines had the marquees at The Roanoke, The Park and The Rialto updated with action neon. Roy C. Kinsey sign company did it. The same people who put the star on Mill Mountain in 1949.
B
In the interior photo currently displayed, the style of the auditorium looks Moorish/Oriental rather than Renaissance Revival. The facade in the exterior photo looks like a standard commercial block of the period, with a few Art Deco touches and a Moorish arcade on the top floor.
The modern address of the American Theatre’s site is 215 S. Jefferson. Roanoke converted its street numbering system sometime after the theater was built. Street View is set to the wrong block. The American Theatre was in the next block south, on the northwest corner of Jefferson and Kirk Avenue.
When I was a teen and working in Roanoke theaters, there were five! The American, The Roanoke, The Jefferson, The Rialto and The Park. Also there were neighborhood theaters the Grandin on Grandin Ave and The Lee on Williamson Rd. The Academy of Music operated until the late 40’s on Salem Ave. downtown but was for stage productions only. Also years before my time in the teen’s & 20’s Roanoke had the Lyric, The Bijou, The Isis, The Princess, The Virginian, The Comet, The Electric Parlor, The Wonderland, The Azusu & maybe a few others. These were small houses with no stage or balcony & the silent films were 5 cents. The Virginia and The Boston were theaters for African Americans back in that day.
I worked at the American Theater in the 1960’s. The Park Theater was on Jefferson St between Luck & Franklin Road on the west side of street. It did not have a stand alone ticket booth but the American did. Also we claimed the American seated 2,000 rather than 1800 but it was actually about 1997 or so as the balcony was a little shy of 1,000 seats but the downstairs was! Next door and heated and cooled by the American system was The Roanoke Theater which seated 1265 with box seats & balcony and about 150 more in the second level balcony which was closed in 1960 as it was for African American patrons. Yep that was nuts but that is the way it was then:–( The Roanoke was build in 1911 for stage shows only and movies were added later. It actually had a larger stage and more wing space than The American.
I remember the Park theater. We visted Roanoke in early 1960s & it was already closed. It had a stand alone ticket booth I believe.
The architect’s middle name is spelled with a double “p” in his entries in various editions of the AIA’s American Architects Directory: Phillippe. As the content for the biographical material in the directories was submitted by the architects themselves, this spelling is most likely correct.
Just spent an hour going through over a hundred pages of the old roanoke website.On it are pics of the MUSIC ACADEMY,which is fairly well remembered-and should be on this site- quite beautiful,but also the RIALTO(Campbell Ave.)and the PARK,nearby,probably on Jefferson.
If you turn the pic to the left(S),the tall building next to the shorter,old building is the site of this former great theater.Still angers me.
Nice vintage photo posted by Lost Memory.
This is the cinema that I remember my grandmother taking me to in the late 1960’s. I believe it was a Charlie Brown film.
You found the Twig’s website,I refered to above.The other two great theaters I refer to above still are not listed,since I can’t get specs and other info on them.In the 60’s,there were still a lot of people who remembered them.
The 3 manual l0 rank style H Wurlitzer organ (1927: opus 1745)from this theatre was moved to Emmanuel Faith Community Church in Escondido, CA where it is played each Sunday. The organ was increased in size to around 20+ ranks by Blackinton Organ Company of San Diego.
Construction costs were “slightly"in excess of $550,000 king-sized 1928 dollars.
Thanks to a great guy named Twig,the man behind the “old Roanoke"website,I have received great exterior shots of the American and a fine interior shot.These pictures rekindled my distaste of that fine banking institution.One shot shows the place all decked out for Christmas.He has also sent me shots of the interior and exterior of the Jefferson down the street,taken before it was remodeled,long before it met it’s untimely demise.He also furnished a good exterior shot of the Academy of Music and an interior shot of the double balconied Roanoke Theater,once Roanoke’s largest house.From the pictures,it is obvious the the American was a much more massive edifice than the familiar Byrd.
I was one of the projectionest at the american back in the 60’s & 70’s when it closed. I bough one of the couches out of the am theater upstairs when they closed & gave it to my parents. They had it restored & after they passed away it was left to me. It is about 10 to 11 feet long. I would consider selling it if I was offered a fair price.