Stamford Theatre
307 Atlantic Street,
Stamford,
CT
6902
307 Atlantic Street,
Stamford,
CT
6902
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Liggett-Florin Booking Service
Architects: James C. Green
Previous Names: Stamford Center for the Arts
Nearby Theaters
The Stamford Theatre opened on August 14, 1915. After it closed as a movie house, the Stamford Theatre was home to the Stamford Center for the Arts, until it was demolished to make way for Rich Forum.
Contributed by
Roger Smith
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
It was built by Emily Wakeman Hartley in 1914 to encourage pre-broadway tryouts for plays. This was according to “Stamford: An Illustrated History” by Feinstein.
First listed in the 1915 Stamford City Directory at 307 Atlantic Street. In 1929, the Weiss Amusement Corp (props, etc.) moves into the theatre building until 1930. In 1982’s listing it changes to SCA.
Here is a 1948 photo from a new collection of Life Magazine photos on Google:
http://tinyurl.com/6rpvms
Thanks, Warren. What’s interesting is that Google mentions a million photos, but each category seems to be capped out at 200. There must be a trick to accessing the rest of the photos that I haven’t figured out yet.
Photos that were shot and cataloged but never selected for actual publication? I have to figure that Life photographers took many more photos than those that actually made it into the magazine pages.
Here is a 1967 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/o4wzge
I believe I once read that the arch was created by Gutzon Borglum, who also did Mt. Rushmore. Does anybody have any information on this?
What great looking Marquee!thanks Ken mc for putting it on.
The archway going into the theater (which may have been designed by Gutzon Borghlum), had at the keystone, a sculpture of the head of Eleanora Duse. When they were building the Rich Forum they tried to save the archway as an architectural gem, but either through accident or intrigue it fell down completely and smashed the bust in the keystone. Today there is a replica of the bust inside the lobby of the Forum theater.
Opened on August 14th, 1914. Grand opening ad posted.