Eagle Theatre
2227 Washington Street,
Roxbury,
MA
02119
2227 Washington Street,
Roxbury,
MA
02119
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Yes, the Eagle is said to be a Clarence Blackall design. Mark-not-Whitey, by “white panel” do you mean the large building on the left, or the smaller “Alpha & Omega” store on the right? I got the impression earlier that the theater entrance was in the latter, but I could be wrong.
I just noticed in an online source that the Eagle was designed by Clarence Blackall. http://home.iprimus.com.au/metzke/Boston.Theatre.Archive.2.html
That theatrical guide cited above was from 1913-14.
The Julius Cahn-Gus Hill Theatrical Guide says H.F. Wasserman, Mgr., Plays Loew vaudeville only, seating capacity 450 floor, 350 balcony, electric lights and A.C., Stage P.O. 24x38 ft., F. to B. W. 14 ft.; 4 dressing rooms.
Switching between a 1915 map and a satellite view does seem to verify that the building with the white panel above the entrance in Google View above is the same building.
In a 1931 atlas map of this section of Washington St. which MarkB has found, the Dudley Theatre and the Roxbury Theatre are shown, but there is no Eagle Theatre. This confirms what Someone Who Was There told me: that the operators of the Eagle built the Dudley across the street, and after it opened, they closed the Eagle and it reverted back to retail store use.
In a 1918 Boston street directory, the Eagle Theatre is listed at 2227 Washington St., west side, between Ruggles St and Vernon St. The Eagle bowling alleys were at 2239 Washington.
Thanks Ron.
In a Boston directory compiled in mid-1925, the Eagle is listed at 2227 Washington St in Roxbury, operated by Eagle Amusement Co.
Someone knowledgeable about movie theaters in the Roxbury area told me that the Eagle was converted from retail (possibly a shoe store), and that the person running it later built the Dudley Theatre across the street, as well as the Warren Theatre not far away. He thinks that the Eagle closed when the Dudley opened. He says that the Eagle was converted back to retail use and is still there today.
From two different souces I have heard that this building is still intact, although the theater was remodeled out of existance a long time ago. More or less the same facade is still there. The Eagle was originally a retail store and was converted into an early movie theater. After it closed to movies, it reverted back to retail.
The Eagle in Roxbury is not to be confused with another Eagle Theatre in Boston which was located on Haverhill Street in what today is the North Station area. That theater operated in the 19th Century and was long gone when this Eagle opened.
Boston cinema professional and historian Joe Cifre wrote that the Eagle Theatre was one of Boston’s first purpose-built movie theaters in the post-1906 era.
It is thought that the Eagle closed sometime in the early-1950s.
Bill Leach, who grew up in Roxbury, went to the movies at the Eagle a few times. He says that it was not a large theater and that it was located just to the north of Dudley Station, on the left (west) side of Washington Street as one faced north toward downtown Boston.