Huron Theatre

941 W. Huron Street,
Pontiac, MI 48341

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Additional Info

Architects: Leo John Heenan

Firms: Johnson Construction Co.

Styles: Art Deco

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Huron Theatre

Located at the busy intersection of West Huron Street and North Telegraph Road, the Huron Theatre opened on June 5, 1942 with Jimmy Lydon in “Henry Aldrich for President” & Bing Crosby in “Birth of the Blues”. It had 426-seats. It lasted until December 24, 1983, when it was destroyed by fire. It was a single floor theatre with a nondescript front but had a triangular shaped marquee with a lot of neon. The upper portion of the front was in a light colored tile paneling down to street level and then changed to a darker color. Small lobby in an Art Deco motif with painting of stripes and circles on the walls.

Contributed by Chuck Van Bibber

Recent comments (view all 6 comments)

Lssu91
Lssu91 on March 11, 2013 at 4:27 pm

Actually, the Huron Theater burned down Christmas Eve 1983…Hope this helps!

Chris1982
Chris1982 on August 27, 2014 at 7:52 am

Lssu91 Was the fire on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve? Most articles say New Years Eve. They wre playing “The Return Of The Jedi” and “The Dead Zone”. Also was this theatre located in Pontiac or Waterford Township?

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on August 27, 2014 at 8:00 pm

This nostalgia piece from the Oakland Press News says that the Huron Theatre burned on Christmas Eve, 1983. There’s a photo of the fire and one of the burned-out building. The article also says that the theater was in Waterford Township (Water Winter Wonderland also lists it in Waterford.)

The article was also blogged, accompanied by a different photo of the theater while it was still in operation. It was showing Around the World in Eighty Days, and there was special lettering on the building itself, not just the marquee, so this might have been the roadshow, which could date the photo to 1957. If not, it’s probably 1958.

graymatters
graymatters on April 18, 2021 at 7:16 pm

My uncle’s Johnson Construction Company theater job list, and most online sources, show the 1941-42 Huron Theatre as being in Pontiac, Michigan. A current (April 2021) Google Maps shows the address as being instead in Waterford Township, Michigan. In August 1948, several years after he’d built the theater, my grandfather Albert S. “Al” Johnson, shot a single Kodachrome slide showing the exterior of the Huron with the film “Three Daring Daughters” listed on the marquee. I’ve uploaded a copy to this website.

In that image, the theater appears as a typical art moderne style theater with three pairs of blue doors with matching half-moon glass (Al’s patented “Johnson doors”). Multi-colored porcelain enamel tiles cover the entire front of the theater and wrap slightly around the sides.

nsortzi
nsortzi on September 22, 2023 at 7:26 am

This theater was actually in Waterford not Pontiac. The Waterford/Pontiac border is Telegraph Road.

rivest266
rivest266 on June 4, 2024 at 2:00 pm

Opened on June 5th, 1942. Grand opening ad posted.

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