Carolina Theatre
117 S. Dargan Street,
Florence,
SC
29506
117 S. Dargan Street,
Florence,
SC
29506
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Additional Info
Previous Names: O'Dowd Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The second O'Dowd Theatre was opened in 1913 and by 1935 had been renamed Carolina Theatre. It was destroyed by fire in 1939. It was rebuilt and opened on April 1, 1940 as the Carolina Theatre. It was closed in the early-1970’s. It was reopened on June 27, 1975 by Stewart & Everett. Following closure on January 22, 1984, it became a church which left the building in the 1980’s. It was taken over by the city and renovations began, with a reopening planned for spring of 2022.
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Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Here is an October 1950 ad from the Florence Morning News:
http://tinyurl.com/m56y8o
Here is an October 1970 ad from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/myrc3y
Façade has been restored recently. The cheap plastic marquee and ugly letters are gone, the left porthole was reopened, but for some reason they’ve mounted two industrial-looking floodlights on the front.
Abandoned Southeast has a feature on this theater. According to this site, the first Carolina Theatre was destroyed in a 1939 fire and rebuilt on the same site, with the new theater opening April 1, 1940. The Carolina showed movies into the 1970s, then hosted a church into the 1980s, then was abandoned. Eventually the City of Florence acquired the building and is said to be renovating it into an events space, with a target opening date of Spring 2022.
Reopened June 27th, 1975, as Cinema 5 by Stewart & Everett and closed or placed its last ad on January 22nd, 1984. 1975 ad posted.
This opened in 1913 as the 2nd O'Dowd theatre per
Early Florance cinema history 24 Dec 1933, Sun Florence Morning News (Florence, South Carolina) Newspapers.com