Tropic Theatre
122 W. Main Street,
Leesburg,
FL
34748
122 W. Main Street,
Leesburg,
FL
34748
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Martin Theatres
Architects: Roy A. Benjamin, Rufus E. Bland
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Fain Theatre, Tropic Twin Theatre
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Nov 12, 2011 — Tropic returns to downtown
The 500-seat Fain Theatre was originally built in 1932 as the B-movie house in Leesburg. African-Americans were seated in the balcony and had their own entrance up a fire escape on the exterior of the building. In 1960 it went through in extensive renovation to the plans of Rufus E. Bland, and was renamed the Tropic Theatre. In 1979 it was added onto and became the Tropic Twin Theatre. It continued to show first run movies until the mid-1980’s. It then changed hands several times and was finally closed in June 2004.
Garner/Rojas Properties has now purchased it and restoration and renovations have started. The original side will be restored to the 1936-era while the other side will be renovated to a state of the art movie and performing arts theatre.
Terry Hicks bought the theatre in 2006 and renovated it. The redone auditorium will house the new Leesburg’s childrens theatre, ‘Tropic Troup’. The auditorium was stripped back to its brick walls. The floors were discovered to be red oak. There are also two dance studios.
The Tropic Theatre reopened as a 238-seat movie theatre at a special midnight screening of “Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn” on November 10, 2011. It was closed in 2015.
Contributed by
Kristi Boliek
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
The Church was only there for 1 year and they leased the older side of the Tropic on Sunday mornings only. The Calvary Babtist Church had around 100 members and once in a while they helf Christian Rock concerts at the theater as well. The membership left when their new building was completed.
The Theater was in full operation during the Churches occupation.
In 1963 the Tropic was part of the MCM Theater Co, based in the Tropic building in Leesburg. The IMPA for that year states that the Tropic Florida in Leesburg was for “colored patronage”, so apparently the theater was segregated at that time.
In 1973, after moving to Leesburg, I went to work at the Tropic. She was a grand old lady but spooky. ON a Sunda, while getting things set up, I was in the new side projection room. Out of the corner of my eye, i saw someone in a checkered shirt walk by to get to the old side. I thought it was my coworker. I heard the front door banging, so I went downstairs and it was my coworker. I asked him how he got locked out. He sai he just got there. I told him I sa him going to the old side. We both walked to the old side projection room. The machines were threaded and in the corner of the room was the checkered shirt I saw. That same night, while cleaning up in the old 1936 theater, I looked up and saw the lights on in the projection room. I dont know how they were on because you turned off everything at the circuit board. After cleaning up, my coworker and I heard someone walking towards the stairs. The lights upstairs turned on and we heard the stairs creak like someone was coming down. We shut the door and left the building. As we drove away, I looked back and saw the door to the upstairs slowly open but no one was there. It still makes my hair stand up thinking about it.
The architect for the 1960 remodeling of the Fain Theatre into the Tropic, which was quite extensive, was Rufus E. Bland. Bland was the long-time in-house architect for the Martin circuit, and MCM, the company that operated the Tropic, was a partnership that included members of the Martin family. The remodeled theater had 450 seats, according to an article in Boxoffice of April 3, 1961, which was accompanied by three small photos of the house.
Here are my pictures from August 2010.
All the pictures were nice,nice story Steve.I too,worked in an old theatre,always strange sounds,but no ghosts.No such thing.It is all in the mind.
The original architect of the Fain Theatre was Roy A. Benjamin. Here is the announcement of the opening from the January 24, 1936, issue of The Film Daily:
It appears that this theatre is no longer showing movies. The website is down and the phone goes unanswered. Only info on the web is for live theater performances.
I believe it about the spirits in this theater is a ton of them at the old palace theater in Leesburg Florida no sightings of goals but you can hear things in this building is not a state of mind all over the stage a shadow lady in the bathroom cabinet opening and shutting on their own and they will get upset if you don’t read them when you walk through Palace theater anybody know if it’s reported that people pass away in these buildings and where could you find them