Roxbury Theatre
2170 Washington Street,
Roxbury,
MA
02119
2170 Washington Street,
Roxbury,
MA
02119
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The Roxbury Theatre was opened in 1910. It was a neighborhood movie house located just north of the Dudley station area in the Roxbury area of Boston. It was at one time part of the Charles Morse theatre circuit of Boston.
Contributed by
Ron Salters
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
In the street directory section of the 1918 Boston Register and Business Directory, Issue 83, the Roxbury Theatre was the second of 3 theaters in its block, on the east side of Washington Street, with Eustis St and Nawn St. to the north, and Palmer St. to the south. The 3 theaters, from north to south, were the Orienta Theatre at 2154 Washington, the Roxbury Th. at 2174, and the Dudley Th. at 2202 Washington. I have never heard of the Orienta Th. before.
In 1915, the same building is named Rugby on a fire insurance map. Could be Rugby Theater, and could be just the Rugby Building. The same map has the Orienta Hall next door.
I see that the Orienta was a Hall and not a theater at one time. The Masons held meetings at the Orienta for a while. Maybe it was converted to a theater later.
MarkB- yes, in that era some halls, such as fraternal halls, were leased out to a movie operator and became inexpensive neighborhood silient film cinemas. Sometimes these operations didn’t last too long, especially if new “real” theaters were being built nearby.
Folks!! Its like a speculation contest! Where are the photos spoke about in the first comment? The photo that is shown is a picture of Ferdenans furnature store!!!
The photos mentioned in the first comment above are on the MGM Theater reports and are not reproduced on this page. The color photo above is not Ferdinand’s building, which is to the south of this spot.
Hello Ron, There was a theater on Washington street. I believe the large bill board above the entrance was by the name of the Roxie or Roxy. The small photo croped in the right of the Google picture above with blue windows is Ferdinands.
This was another theater the kids in the neighborhoods used to go to.
In the day they were nine cents!
Linesides- Yes, the little photo is the Ferdinands building. You can also see it in the distance if you rotate the picture above to the right. The Ferdinands Furniture building,which I think was also called “the Blue building”, is to be rehabbed into office space. There was a Roxie Theatre in Roxbury and it’s here in Cinema Treasures, too. It was a new name for the old Shawmut Theatre on Blue Hill Avenue. Another theater in the Dudley area was the Dudley Theatre, it was on Washington Street near the Roxbury Theatre, on the same side of the street. Then there was the Puritan, which was up north aways, on the opposite side of the street, near Mass. Ave. Plus the Warren Theatre several blocks south of the Dudley Square area. There was no shortage of places to go to the movies in that area around 1950!
Hey, I remember the Roxie theatre on Washington st. It was only 9 cents to get in. It was pretty run down when my siblings and I attended in the early 1950’s and at time a scary place for children as derelicts sometimes slept there as there was no time limit to leaving after watching a movie. “Scary”