Strand Theatre
227 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
227 Sunrise Highway,
Rockville Centre,
NY
11570
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I belong to the Odd Fellows Lodge in RVC and when they demolished the theatre, they donated the seats to our lodge and they were used by our members for many years. We still have many of them in our attic. A photo was uploaded to the photo section.
The following is the description of the Strand from the Archives of the Rockville Centre Public Library: “The Strand Theatre stood on the north side of Sunrise Highway between Park and Village Avenues. It had 1,035 seats, an organ, mushroom ventilation (the forerunner of air conditioning), large dressing rooms and large aisles. It opened on June 8, 1922 and offered both vaudeville shows and motion pictures.
According to local lore, boys would scrape together 10 cents for one admission. One boy would go in and open the fire exit in the balcony (which was not alarmed) to allow in his buddies.
Two photos circa 1930 added. The distance shot is from the Archives of the Rockville Centre Public Library. The frontal was originally posted by Warren Harris and subsequent relinked by Ed Solero.
June 8th to be specific.
Marilyn Nunes Devlin’s book A Brief History of Rockville Centre says that the Strand Theatre opened in 1922.
By the way, here’s a look at what the Sleepy’s looked like just a few years ago in 2007. Seems they streamlined the facade a bit further since then, judging from the current street view, removing the peak from the center of the parapet wall.
Rob… Warren didn’t really pass anything along to me. When I found an image of his that I though I might like to hold on to, I’d ask his permission to copy it into my photobucket account, but that was about the extent of our image-sharing relationship. Warren would often rotate images in and out of his own photobucket account, due largely to storage-space issues, I think. Many of his links are now broken due merely to his having removed the images from his scrapbook to make space for others.
If anyone is familiar with the area, the site of this theater is now a parking lot adjacent to the Sleepy’s showroom on Sunrise Highway. The Sleepy’s building looks quite similar to the old Strand building, in fact, and for a time I thought it might have been an adaptive re-use of the old building… but if you look at the vintage pic, you can see a piece of the Sleepy’s building at the far left of the image.
When I ssw the Strand, many years later, there was no vertical. The marquee was one of those modern boxy ones and the name was in neon. I seem to recall the Lefferts being that way. It’s something for this theatre you can get the old but not the new. I’ve been trying to get the old for the Bellerose but only the new seems to be out there. Also, Warren had a photo of Century’s Huntington Station, poor and from a book. Did he pass that along to you?
Here’s a link to Warren’s vintage image of the Strand. I wish it were a larger image.
Ed, if you added Warren’s 1929 photo to your scrapbook, could you repost it here, since Warren’s link is now inactive.
I noticed in a comment on another theatre that in 1938 the Strand was part of the Century Circuit because some trade paper announced a number of Century Managerial changes and the Strand was mentioned. Don’t know when it came on board but it did have life after Century because I saw some ads in Newsday when I was tracking down another theatre.
I had no idea a third theater ever existed in Rockville Centre. I thought it was always the Fantasy and then the twin on Sunrise Hwy and that was it. Amazing.
From the movie times in Newsday it would appear the Strand was shut down for a period of time. Then it appeared in a separate ad. The fiche quality was so poor that I couldn’t tell whether it said Century someplace, but it wasn’t included in the basic Century ad.
Anybody know when they changed the marquee from the original and removed the vertical shown in the pix above? And does anybody have a picture of the new marquee. I remember it as being boxy with Strand in neon letters atop the display portion.
Here’s something that the Strand had in common with a bunch of other theatres in Brooklyn and Queens. It was part of the Subway Circuit. A summer presentation of live performances. Interesting because this theatre was never air conditioned before it was demolished, which always surprised me since it had a modern marquee.
Warren, my wife said the exact same thing to me when we drove by this particular Sleepy’s last week! Thanks for the “OK!”
Sorry… Here’s that photo I wanted to link to in my last post.
I went to the former site of the old Strand in Rockville Center today and discovered that I was mistaken about the identity of the building I identified above as the possible remnants of the former theater. The building above (which houses a Sleepy’s mattress showroom) is actually 221 Sunrise Highway and can be glimpsed in Warren’s 1929 photo at far left.
Here’s a shot that I took before I realized I was mistaken about the building. Note the two vertical gutters that run down along the front edges of the building and the fireplug to the right of the structure…. you can see both of these elements in Warren’s photo.
Unfortunately, 227 Sunrise Hwy is now a commuter parking lot for the LIRR station just behind Sunrise Hwy and the Strand’s status is properly noted as “Closed/Demolished.”
Warren… May I copy your 1929 photo for inclusion in my scrapbook? I’ll be sure to give you proper credit for unearthing the image.
Here’s a local.live.com view of 227 Sunrise Highway as it exists today. I’d say this is the same building – although it appears that the stage housing at the rear of the structure has been demolished leaving only the front portion of the building.
I’ve driven past numerous times and thought this might have been the site of this theater. I’ll have to take note of what currently occupies the structure next time I pass.