Adams Theatre
13 School Street,
Quincy,
MA
02169
13 School Street,
Quincy,
MA
02169
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Thanks to whoever “unlocked” the Streetview photo above and moved it down to the correct location. The Adams entrance was either the area occupied by the East Coast Martial Arts, or the adjacent Low Overhead Discount store. Not sure exactly.
Here is an article about the Adams Theatre from Boxoffice of January 3, 1942. The conclusion of the article is several pages later, so here’s a direct link to it. The architect for the conversion of the skating rink into a theater was Roger G. Rand.
In the Streetview photo above, the Adams was in the 2-story white building down the street, not in the brown-brick building nearest the camera. There was a marquee there; you walked in and then turned right to face the screen.
The Adams was not the first theater in Quincy to be constructed in a remodeled skating rink. In 1906, the Scenic Temple was built in the old Quincy Coliseum, a skating rink and dance hall on what is now Upland Road near Quincy Square. The Scenic Temple presented both early movies and live small-time vaudeville acts on stage.
I went there to the “flicks” from the mid-1940s until it closed and it was always the “Adams” Theatre. But the building which contained the entrance could have had another name, like “Arthorp”.
The inscription at the top of the theater says “Arthorp Building”.
It should be pointed out that the Adams was undoubtedly named for President John Adams and President John Quincy Adams whose side-by-side birthplaces are located only a 10 or 12 minute walk from the theater and are maintained by the National Park Service.
ken mc- very interesting. I didn’t realize that it dated from the 1940s and not the 1930s and that it was a remodeled skating rink. It probably opened in late-1941 or in 1942.
This is from Boxoffice magazine, May 1941, and may answer the question posted above:
QUINCY-Plans are afoot to remodel a skating rink on School Street into a theater.
Newsman Richard T. LeBrecque, writing in the Quincy Patriot Ledger of April 20, 1962, says that the Adams Theatre on School Street was located “in the old Arena”. I’m not sure what he meant by that—was there some sort of arena originally located in the rather small space of the Adams auditorium, or did he mean that the building containing the Adams Theatre was constructed on the site of an old arena ??
Shoeshoe14- the next time you’re in downtown Quincy, go back to the intersection of Hancock St. and School St. Walk north on the west side of Hancock a few steps, with a pub on your left, until you’re at the intersection of Hancock Court, a side-street on your left. Go up this street just a few steps. On your left the blank one-story wall, with a couple of exit doors, is the old left auditorium wall of the Adams Theatre. The screen was at the east end, the rear of the auditorium was at the west end; the lobby out to School St. was on the south side. I don’t know what’s in it today, but it’s all still intact.
I didn’t see a 13 School Street but a number close to it. It’s either a retail like it says up there or what I thought – a doctor’s office. Around back, there’s a parking lot behind that, so that must have been the rest of it. Looked like a neighborhood theater to me.
The Adams was a small nabe at the south end of Quincy center. One walked in from the street and turned right to face the screen. All seats on one floor. It closed circa 1960 or so.?? If you go today to the side street directly behind it you can easily see the left side wall of the auditorium and the 2 fire exits.