Fox Theatre
410 High Street,
Burlington,
NJ
08016
410 High Street,
Burlington,
NJ
08016
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fox Circuit
Architects: David Supowitz
Previous Names: Auditorium Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Located on High Street, close to the corner of E. Broad Street. Began its life in the 1890’s as the Auditorium Theatre and used mostly for live performances. It was taken over by Jacob B. Fox and renamed Fox Theatre in October 1923. It was equipped with a Kimball 2 manual organ. By 1927 the Fox New Jersey theatres had become affiliated as part of the Stanley Theatres chain.
Remodeled by architect David Supowitz, it was listed in the 1944 and 1945 Film Daily Yearbooks). However, it was destroyed by fire in December 1944.
In 2021, the site is occupied by Town House Apartments.
Contributed by
tc
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
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It seems to me that it was on the SW corner of High Street and West Federal. Sadly, I think that it’s still a vacant lot.
I grew up exactly two short blocks from the High Theater…..I saw Ben-Hur eight times there, many Three Stooges movies and Lawrence of Arabia four times
It remains a vacant lot today in the Yorktown Area of Historic Burlington
I remember the Frank’s grape soda which was dispensed from a coin operated vending machine…..some weekdays in the summer, I would have the whole theater to myself
I attended shows from age 8-14….I remember it closing….The Fox theater was up High street at the site of the old Birch Opera house where Mercury still stands on a pedstal with the name Bich and the year….I’ll look next time I travel to visit relatives
The High Theatre was at 409 High St. It was across the street from the Auditorium Theatre (later the Fox) which was at 410 High St. They were not the same building.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in May 1960:
The Burlington Drive-In may have to agree to stop showing “arty” films or it will lose its license. Residents have complained about the picture “Nudist’s Paradise”, which is about a nudist colony. Burlington’s mayor went to see the film “and was shocked…I couldn’t believe it”. Traffic jams have been reported in areas where cars can see the screen while driving by the theater.
A conference will be set with city council and the drive-in manager, Mrs. Ethel Olarchik of Trenton, who also manages the High Theater in the same town for Melvin Fox Enterprises.
Here is an undated photo:
http://tinyurl.com/m92hlb
Very old school looking.
The Auditorium is listed in the 1906-1907 Cahn guide as a ground floor house with 1,439 seats. It is listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, though with the address 413 High Street. Then there is this item from the January 27, 1929 issue of Film Daily: “Burlington, N. J.— Jacob B. Fox has opened his new Auditorium here.” Other sources indicate that Fox bought the Auditorium in 1923 and remodeled it that year, when a 2-manual Kimball organ was installed, so I can’t explain the reference to a “new Auditorium” in the 1929 item. Perhaps a more extensive remodeling?
In December, 1944, the Fox Theatre was destroyed by a fire. The December 11 issue of the Trenton Evening Times reported that Presidents Taft and Wilson had been among the many statesmen who had spoken at the Auditorium “…in the course of the past half-century,” so the building probably dated from the 1890s. The newspaper description said that nothing remained of the building bout the walls, so if there was a Fox Theatre at this address in later years it must have been a new house built inside the shell of the old one.