Garden Theatre
150 N. Broad Street,
Trenton,
NJ
08608
150 N. Broad Street,
Trenton,
NJ
08608
4 people
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My grandmother immigrated to Trenton from England in 1910 at age 14. I recall her pointing out this theater, or another near this location, as being the “tin dump.” It apparently had a metal roof that made a great deal of noise when it was raining. It also had a balcony reserved for African Americans that was offensively known as N. Heaven.
The building still exists. Here’s a link to a photo by Seth Gaines on Flickr.
View link
The Garden Theatre, owned by Charles Hildinger and Milton Hirshfild reopened on April 27, 1925.
Back in the 50s, the Garden was a “Colored theater” catering to a Black clientele. It was fairly rundown and wasn’t showing anything close to a first run. My memory is of older “B” films.
EdM
Here is a 1980 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/d9n3rz
I found out that City Gardens was on Calhoun Street.
I remember a live venue in the 1980s called City Gardens. Could this be the same building?
Going north on Broad St., it was on the right hand side. Around 1972, It had Garden Theatre painted on the south side of the building but very faded. The name on the Marquee was hand lettered It said “Teatro Puerto Rico”. They were showing Spanish language films. The booth was one of my all time favorites. Very early Regular Simplex projecctors, Western Electric (Mirror-phonic?) sound heads. When you opened the soundhead door, you would loose the sound. The carbon arc lamps were called Strong Mogul’s. Instead of an electric change over behind the aperture, The had two sliding metal plates on tracks that were mounted on the wall and slid in front of port holes. The place had a large wooden balcony with windows ob the back wall.
Listed on page 66 of the 1913 Trenton City Directory under “Amusements”.
Listed on page 126 of the 1917 Trenton City Directory under “Moving Pictures”. Address is given as 148 N. Broad.
Listed in the 1944 & 1951 FDYs. Listed as part of Milgrim Booking Service, Inc. in the 1961 Film Daily Yearbook.
Garden Theatre, (Benjamin Robinson), moving pictures, 150 N Broad"
listing in the 1920 Trenton City Directory as hosted by trentonhistory.org I believe that Mr. Robinson was the theatre manager.