Colonial Theatre
225 Market Street,
Harrisburg,
PA
17101
225 Market Street,
Harrisburg,
PA
17101
2 people
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Fabian Theaters, Wilmer & Vincent Corp.
Architects: Fuller Claflin, Matthew Wilson
Styles: Greek Revival
Previous Names: New Colonial Theatre
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News About This Theater
- Sep 18, 2007 — The Colonial Theater By 'Jack's Kid' Dennis O'Rear
The New Colonial Theatre was opened by Wilmer & Vincent Corp. on November 4, 1912 with movies and vaudeville. The Colonial Theatre was still operating as a movie theatre in February 1977 but had closed by 1978 when the empty building suffered some damage in a fire. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.
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Recent comments (view all 27 comments)
I’ve found a number of errors in the NRHP’s listings, usually misspellings and sometimes wrong dates. I doubt that they’ll ever get around to correcting them. But “Flin, Cla” is one of the oddest things I’ve seen there. It sounds like it would be the name of a character in a bad sword and sorcery novel.
The story I heard about the Colonial from a veteran vaudvillian who had a dance team with his wife (and later was Mae West’s road manager), they loved playing the Colonial; it was a short skip and a jump from the train station with their trunks and props down the alley to the Colonial’s backstage door.
A short article in the November 20, 1978 issue of Boxoffice said that the Colonial Theatre in Harrisburg had suffered major damage from a probable arson fire on October 29. The house had been permanently closed some years earlier. The article noted that part of the building dated back to the mid-1830s, when it had housed the Wilson Hotel. The building was partly demolished and rebuilt and opened as the Colonial Theatre in 1912.
Still operating as of February 16, 1977, when this theater made what must have been a very rare appearance in the Philadelphia papers' display ads, showing the double bill of “Blast” and “TNT Jackson” (seen on the marquee in one of the pictures). Only a few Philly-area theaters booked this pairing, so the ad space was padded with some houses in outlying cities.
Opened November 4, 1912 with motion pictures and vaudeville.
Unless they built an exact duplicate, this building has not been demolished.
The original building was restored.
While the front building which housed the Colonial Theatre’s entrance is still standing, the auditorium section was entirely demolished in 1983. There are press photos of the event available on ebay from the Historic Images Company. The auditorium’s site is occupied by a fairly sensitively designed five story office and retail building which harmonizes well with the historic front structure but is clearly built of modern materials.
Also we have the current address wrong. Google Street view shows 225 Market above the entrance.
Grand opening ad posted.