Website Updating: Movie Theatres

From the 150 pages of movie theatres, these are the most noteworthy changes. Usually, each year during this project, I find about a half dozen sudden demolitions. But this time, it wasn’t so bad. This will be a shortie post since the next section (Art Deco Buildings) has about 175 pages to comb and it will probably make for a long blog post or two.

The Stockton Theatre in Stockton, CA was badly damaged in a fire in 2021. It was demolished in 2023. The sign was saved before that and put in storage. It’s still not known if the sign will be restored or where it might be displayed:

The long-closed Burbank Theatre in San Jose, CA:

may be demolished for housing with the blade sign installed on the front of the new building:

I didn’t get to shoot this one but now the Lido Theatre in The Pas, MB was destroyed by a fire last year. Here’s the StreetView photo before the fire:

The Empire Theatre (later Prime Event Center) in Bay City, MI was demolished last year:

The long-closed National Theatre in Detroit, MI was demolished last year…:

… but the facade was saved and put in storage. It will be incorporated into the new site development:

This theatre building in Camdenton, MO was demolished by last year. I dug around online but could not find out why:

Let’s end with some relatively good news. The Mission Theatre in El Paso, TX…:

was looking even worse in 2022 (my photo above from 2017):

… but last year, the building was renovated and repainted. It’s still vacant but it’s a miracle that it wasn’t torn down! From the Preservation Texas West Region Facebook page: