James Theater
319 S. James Street,
Goldsboro,
NC
27530
319 S. James Street,
Goldsboro,
NC
27530
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Additional Info
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Rex Auditorium Theatre Yoland Theatre, Mason Theatre
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The Rex Auditorium Theatre was opened in 1927 and was an African-American theatre. It was soon taken over by H.B. Mitchell Theatres and renamed Yoland Theatre, still operating as an African American Theatre. That name was short lived as it became the Mason Theatre, operated by H.R. Mason. Renamed James Theatre in 1938 following a Streamline Moderne style renovation. It suffered damage from a fire in April 1944 and reopened on June 26, 1944. The James Theatre is listed in 1955 with 370 seats. It was closed in 1962.
The building began use as an event center, fraternal hall, pool hall and storage facility until it suffered damage from a fire in 1987. The vacant building was demolished in the early-1990’s.
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
The University of North Carolina’s web site about theaters, “Going to the Show,” lists the James Theatre as having been an African-American house.
If the address listed above is correct then the James Theater has been demolished. However, there is a building on the southwest corner of South James and West Spruce Streets (301 South James?) that looks like it could have been a movie theater at one time.
In the 1928 Goldsboro city directory, 319 S. James is listed as the location of the Rex Auditorium Theatre, a moving picture house for black patrons, operated by J. K. Darden. This house was apparently the successor to the Rex Theatre on W. Chestnut Street, which was not listed in the 1928 directory.
The Rex Auditorium Theatre opened in 1927 in the James Street African American business corridor in Goldsboro known as the Block within Little Washington. Little Washington was annexed in 1869 serving as a home for post-Civil War African Americans. The business corridor followed with the Block home to restaurants, barbers, and other businesses catering to an African American clientele.
The Rex was taken on by a new operator, H.B. Mitchell Theatres of Florida which operated a number of African American cinemas, in its first year. Mitchell renamed it as the Yoland Theatre mixing live stage and film content. H.R. Mason of the Mason Theatre took over the venue as its third operator in the same year making it no longer African American owned but appealing to the same audience. It was wired for sound to remain viable. Robert L. Baum took on the Rex Theatre in 1938 and gave it a streamline moderne makeover becoming the James Theatre for African American patrons in 1938. The theater suffered a fire in April of 1944 requiring a $13,000 repair for its June 26, 1944 relaunch.
The James booked virtually every African American film of the period from Sack Amusements, Astor Pictures and others. It appears to have gone out of business in 1962 or 1963.
The city’s long gestating urban renewal plan looked to be the end of the building. But as Little Washington was being demolished all around it, the theater building actually survived another 30 years being used in the 1970s as an event center mostly for boxing matches, a fraternal hall / pool hall, a storage facility. Damaged by fire in 1987, it was vacated and demolished in the early 1990s.