Kent Theatre

The Kent Theatre began its life as the Hubbard Opera House in downtown Cedar Springs, Michigan. The building was constructed in the late-1880’s and was the sight of various community functions as well as traveling shows and other forms of entertainment.

It became a movie theater in the 1920’s and was known as the Emprise Theatre. Early in the 1930’s, local businessman Morris Frank purchased it, added a new brick facade and neon-lighted marquee, upgraded the projection equipment and changed the name to the Kent Theatre.

The Kent Theatre closed its doors in the mid-1970’s when then-owners John and Charlotte Rogalewski made the decision that the business was losing ground to the newer, more modern cinaplexes in Grand Rapids. It was sold to a Cedar Springs based ‘Friends of the Kent Theatre’ in the 1980’s on a land contract. The land contract was honored and faithfully funded until the contract was paid off around 2014.

The Kent Theatre community theatre group has done a wonderful job of upgrading and restoring the theatre which now shows feature films and hosts community events.

Recent comments (view all 3 comments)

kencmcintyre on February 10, 2009 at 12:35 am

Here is an event that was held at the Kent last October:
http://tinyurl.com/cw334u

kencmcintyre on April 17, 2010 at 10:37 pm

Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y3x43d7

Trolleyguy on April 9, 2016 at 7:52 pm

Doing live theatre and first run movies.