Fogg Opera House
4 - 6 Columbian Street,
South Weymouth,
MA
02190
4 - 6 Columbian Street,
South Weymouth,
MA
02190
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In the Ledger Archives section of the Quincy Patriot-Ledger of Nov. 5, 2012, there is an item from the Ledger of Nov. 10, 1937 which reported that the old Fogg Opera House was “doomed” because the building owner had decided to completely remodel the space occupied by the theater and convert it into apartments. This work was probably done in 1938.
I have not been able to find this theater listed in the Julius Cahn guides which means it was not a first-string roadshow house. The nearest theater listed in the Cahn guides was the Rockland Opera House, a short distance to the south in Rockland. That theater also later became a local cinema.
Maybelle Barcelo Drown (1905-2011), who was a “song & dance” girl in vaudeville, was involved in presenting dance shows at the Fogg Opera House around 1930.
The south elevation of the building was ruined about 1940 with the construction of a one-story commercial addition. This addition obliterated the series of Romanesque arches at ground level, as well as the driveway there. At that time, many more windows were punched into the walls. I believe that this is when the theater was deconstructed upstairs.
In old Film Daily Yearbooks it’s sometimes listed as “Fogg’s Opera House” or “Fogg Hall”, but I don’t believe such names are correct. For example, it was listed as “Fogg Hall” on a long list of theaters in Massachusetts which received state licenses for the period ending Oct. 31, 1914. Its condition was described as “Good” on that list.