Pocahontas Theatre
25 McDowell Street,
Welch,
WV
24801
25 McDowell Street,
Welch,
WV
24801
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Not sure why the map marker is so far off. The address seems right. It may have been 25, since 23 is now the second floor of the building to the south of where the theater was. The blurry version of the 1946 photo should be deleted.
I’m not seeing the photo linked by thegreev in an earlier comment (I don’t know if it’s gone or my browser simply isn’t fetching it) so I don’t know if this is the same one, but this 1963 photo shows the entrance and part of the marquee of the Pocahontas Theatre.
My grandfather, Dr. John E. Davis, had his medical office “over” the theater in the 1930s.
Crisper version of the 1946 photo added, courtesy of Hemmings Motor News.
This web page has the transcript of an article about the Pocahontas Theatre from the December 22, 1928, issue of the Welch Daily News.
The Pocahontas Theatre was directly across the street from the Temple Theatre, which was in the Odd Fellows Temple building, built in 1929. The Temple Theatre’s space is occupied by a restaurant called Raymond’s, which the Internet says is at 24 McDowell Street. The address of the Pocahontas must have been about 23-25 McDowell Street.
The West Virginia History page Lost Memory linked to says that Alex B. Mahood was the architect of the Pocahontas Theatre.
Mahood also designed a Jewell Valley Theatre in Jewell Valley, Virginia, which opened in 1944, according to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of August 18, 1945. The 350-seat house was the first movie theater ever built with radiant floor heating. I don’t find the Jewell Valley Theatre listed at Cinema Treasures.
There is an interior photo of the Pocahontas on this page:
http://tinyurl.com/3qozpv
Here is a photo of the Pocahontas Marquee:
