Alamo Theatre

19 Court Square,
Newnan, GA 30263

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Related Websites

The Alamo Newnan (Official)

Additional Info

Architects: Albert Howell, McKendree A. Tucker

Firms: Tucker & Howell

Functions: Live Performances

Previous Names: Newnan Theatre

Nearby Theaters

The Alamo circa 1978

Opened as the Newnan Theatre in 1928 it was a conversion of retail space. In 1939 it was redesigned by the GA architectural firm Tucker & Howell. The theater is located in downtown Newnan, GA.

Contributed by Deborah Gibson

Recent comments (view all 12 comments)

WHITEFIELD
WHITEFIELD on May 25, 2007 at 4:32 pm

Here is a photo I took of the theatre several years ago.
View link

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on August 30, 2007 at 10:47 am

This was part of the Lam Amusement chain in the early sixties. It’s misidentified in the 1963 almanac as being in Newman, GA.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on May 2, 2009 at 11:24 pm

Alamo Jack’s is now just The Alamo, and has a new web site. The site includes an early photo of the Alamo Theatre, plus a scan of an article from a local newspaper (though its hard to read, the scan being too small) which says that the Alamo Theatre opened in 1928 in space previously occupied by a retail store. The closing date given in the article appears to be 1968, but I wouldn’t swear to that. The information in the intro that the Alamo opened as the Newnan Theatre in 1937 is erroneous.

Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of October 2, 1937, says that the Lam Amusement Company had taken over the Alamo from its former operator, J.B. Meyers. The October 21, 1939, issue of Boxoffice said that the Alamo had reopened after a remodeling. The August 22, 1953, issue said that a wide screen had been installed in the Alamo.

I’ve been unable to find any specific references to the 1939 remodeling having been designed by Tucker & Howell, but as that firm had drawn the plans for remodeling Lam’s Gem Theatre in Newnan in 1935, as well as doing many other projects for the Lam Amusement Company over many years, it seems likely that they would have done the plans for the remodeling of the Alamo as well.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on August 18, 2010 at 4:19 pm

What crying Shame.Small towns and even larger cities just do not have the funds anymore to save these theatres.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on August 18, 2010 at 4:20 pm

Thanks for all the pictures.

acdecoster
acdecoster on July 25, 2017 at 10:16 am

“A few doors down from the Gem, the space that now houses The Alamo Theater at 19 West Court Square was built in 1880 as a commercial building, home to a harness shop, general store, and a butcher through the decades. A blacksmith, and later a barbeque stand once occupied the alley space behind. The building was converted into a movie theater with one screen and 551 seats in 1928.” -http://www.mainstreetnewnan.com/p/getinvolved/147

dansdriveintheater
dansdriveintheater on January 27, 2019 at 6:54 pm

can be seen in the 2018 blockbuster film the house with a clock in it’s walls

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 10, 2023 at 4:05 pm

I’ve come across an ad for the Hamrick & Couch grocery store which ran in The Newnan Herald of September 24, 1920. The ad gives the store’s location as 21 Court Square, “Next Door to Alamo Theatre.” The interesting thing is that 21 Court Square is not next door to today’s Alamo Theatre, at 19 Court Square, but next door to the site of the Gem Theatre, at 22 Court Square.

As local sources claim that the building at 19 Court Square was converted from retail purposes to a theater (the Alamo) in 1928, and movies were being shown at 22 W. Court by 1911 but it didn’t become the Gem until 1934, it seems possible that the Alamo was originally in the building at 22 W. Court, operating from 1916 until 1928, when the building at 19 W. Court was converted for its use.

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