State Theatre
215 Abbott Road,
East Lansing,
MI
48823
215 Abbott Road,
East Lansing,
MI
48823
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One time when I visited the campus circa 1970s or 80s, it was a church.
Demolished Late August- early September 1985. Multiple images and news article added.
This web page has a history of the State Theatre. Construction began in late 1926 and was completed in 1927. The theater and the adjoining Abbott Building were designed by Edwyn Alfred Bowd and Orlie J. Munson of the Lansing architectural firm the Bowd-Munson Company. The Abbott Building survived the theater by more than three decades, finally being demolished in October, 2017, after having been vacant for about ten years.
February 1957 photo added courtesy of John Stone. Matching advertisement image added credit The State Journal.
November 2nd, 1927 grand opening ad in the photo section. It opened on the next date.
Thanks for the info.
Lost your new links from American Classic Images are broken.
When I was an MSU student in the 1950s, the State would show wide-screen movies by squishing down the top and keeping the sides the same. We would term it “drawf-a-scope.”
The newspaper article with b/w photo is so sad especially the words of Jim Fritzgerald, bank president…..“few have protested the loss of the old building”. If I were a resident of Lansing and Mr. Fritzgerald is still alive, I’d want to go meet with him and ‘chat’ about the theatre his bank owned and chose to demolish!
Can’t believe this one in the Lansing area is gone, too!
Alas, that the State Theater came to that. When student film culture got going in the 60s, the State was where it was at. I saw “The Graduate” there.