Vernon Theatre
19 Public Square,
Mount Vernon,
OH
43050
19 Public Square,
Mount Vernon,
OH
43050
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Schine Circuit Inc.
Architects: John Adolph Emil Eberson
Styles: Art Deco
Nearby Theaters
The Vernon Theatre was opened in 1938 and was part of the Schine Circuit. It was still open in 1975. It had been demolished by 1981.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
The Schine circuit’s Vernon Theatre in Mount Vernon, Ohio, was listed in the “Theaters Under Construction” column of The Film Daily, April 9, 1938. The architect for the project was John Eberson.
Does anyone know when this theater was demolished?
I haven’t found a demolition date, but the theater was apparently in operation into 1975. An article in a Kenyon College Alumni Bulletin says “[Kenyon House] stretched the entire block from the side on South Main Street to the corner alley, the same alley many alumni will remember as being next to the front entrance to Schine’s Vernon Theater, which Kenyon students frequented to see movies from 1938 to 1975.”
It was demolished within a few years of closing, though. A 1960 view at Historic Aerials shows the theater, but it is gone in the 1981 aerial, which is the next one available.
The 1914-1915 AMPD lists five movie theaters at Mount Vernon, two of them on the public square, but with no numbers given. The 1913 Sanborn map of Mount Vernon shows two theaters on the square: the Grand, on the east side of the north corner of the square with Main Street, address 1 Public Square; and a house labeled “Motion Pictures” at 19 Public Square, which would be the southeast corner of the square. By process of elimination, this had to have been the house listed in the AMPD as the Lyric Theatre. The Lyric was still listed in the FDY in 1938, the year the Vernon was built at the same address. Like its replacement, the Lyric was part of the Schine circuit.
What I haven’t been able to discover is if the Vernon was entirely new construction, or if it incorporated part of the Lyric Theatre’s building. The entrance of the Vernon was exactly where the entrance of the Lyric would have been, and in the photos of the Vernon the entrance doesn’t look old at all, so it might be that the Lyric, which was last listed with only 229 seats, was entirely demolished (except perhaps for the common sidewall it probably shared with the neighboring building.)
I worked at the Vernon, helped salvage some contents before demolition, still have some light fixtures, and still have a set of John Eberson’s blueprints. The Vernon, which was called on the plans:Theatre Building, Mt. Vernon, Ohio, For The Mt. Lyric Real Estate Corp., Owner. was all new construction. Nothing was re-used. The elevation of the marquee in the plans says, “Schines LYRIC”
I got turned around when checking the map for my earlier comment. The Lyric and Vernon were at the southwest corner of the square, of course, not the southeast, and the Grand was on the east side of the square at the corner of High Street, not Main.
Thanks to r1zr1z1 for confirming the complete demolition of the old Lyric. It deserves its own Cinema Treasures page.
Some further notes: The Vernon had an orchestra pit with an upright piano. Offstage left at stage level there were 3 dressing rooms with sinks and two single occupant toilets. There was no fly space and the dimmers were in the projection booth. The space under the stage was unfinished and used for storage for derelict projection equipment from other Schine Theatres. At the time of closing, the booth equipment was 2 Simplex E-7 projectors with Peerless Magnarc lamphouses and Ampex magnetic penthouse soundheads. Mono sound was Simplex and there was a rack of 4 Ampex amplifiers for Cinemascope 4-channel stereo. There was one Brenkert C3 spotlight. Also in the booth was a single theatre seat with made with 2 different aisle standards alleged to have come from “the old Vine Street Theatre.” Wish we knew more about that one.