Mecca Theatre
130 N. Main Street,
Crossville,
TN
38555
130 N. Main Street,
Crossville,
TN
38555
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A small town movie house in Crossville, TN. The Mecca Theatre was opened around 1915. It was closed in 1940.
Contributed by
J F Lundy
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
This item appeared in the January 24, 1922 issue of Film Daily: “Crossville, Tenn.—The Mecca is now under the management of C. P. Harrison.”
One source says that the Mecca Theatre originally opened around 1915 in the same block of Main Street the Palace Theatre was later built in, but it burned in 1924 and was rebuilt in the 100 N block of Main Street, across the street from the depot. The depot is at 169 N. Main, and one of the buildings across from it has a copy of the photo of the Mecca we have above mounted on its front. This is supposed to have been the Mecca’s building, though it isn’t recognizable.
The building has no visible street number, but judging from the businesses up and down the block it is probably about 124 N. Main. The front and the alley side display several posters advertising various productions of the Cumberland County Playhouse, and the side wall has the theater company’s name on it. The Playhouse itself is at another location, but as the old Mecca building has the company’s sign on it, it must serve some auxiliary purpose, though there’s no clue what.
Here is a Google street view. Oddly, a street view notation says this is the location of an outfit called Southern Crane, but a search for Southern Crane gives that company a totally different address.
In the wider photo that I added April 28, 2020 to the gallery, the rectangular portion with decorative blocks to the upper right of the old Mecca entrance, are similar to the blocks that are visible on North Street/alley in the current street view. So it’s possible that the elevation that faces Main Street, at one time had those same decorative blocks on it, that were removed. As that elevation has been replaced with newer brick. So the old Mecca entrance, would then be the white corrugated metal facade on Main Street.
That does seem very likely. The wider vintage view shows the theater had neighboring buildings on both sides, so the entrance must have been between the mystery building with the posters and the building that has the bike shop in Google street view. There are no street numbers on this building either, but since the bike shop was at 138 this one is probably about 130 or 132.
Incidentally, the book I cited in my earlier comment says that the Mecca closed in 1940, so odds are we’ll never hear from anyone who actually went there. Both the Mecca and Palace are listed in the 1940 FDY, but the 219-seat Mecca is listed as closed. The Palace must have been a replacement theater, and likely opened by the end of 1939.