Theatre
406 Malvern Avenue,
Hot Springs,
AR
71901
406 Malvern Avenue,
Hot Springs,
AR
71901
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Sometime between 1901 and 1908, a modest set of three little brick stores were constructed, replacing a house. The center storefront was a ‘5¢ Theatre’.
This little nickelodeon was very short lived, as was the building, and by 1915, the whole thing had been replaced by a more substantial set of storefronts.
This area is totally desolate today, with very few buildings at all. This entire block has been turned into a parking lot.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists a house in the 400 block of Malvern Avenue, but it was at 420. It was called the Pekin Theatre.
420 on the 1915 map is an undertaker. There is no 420 on the 1908 map. Almost all the buildings are different, which makes me think there was a serious fire, or perhaps a tornado. In 1915, the building that is in the space which would have been 420 in 1908 is 424, and is a restaurant with a boarding house or SRO above.
It turns out there was indeed a fire at Hot Springs in 1913, and it wiped out much of Malvern Avenue. It looks like it took out a couple dozen square blocks of the town. The Pekin probably only lasted about a year. It would have been pretty easy to convert a small movie house into a funeral parlor.