This was originally posted on the After the Final Curtain Patreon in Feburary 2023.

For expanded early posts, as well as video walkthroughs and other exclusive content, you can become a patron at: https://www.patreon.com/afterthefinalcurtain

I moved back to Massachusetts in late 2016, and this theater was one I had known about for years. I’d reached out to the original and new owners on various occasions to gain access to photograph it. A group was looking to save it before it was demolished, and I worked with them for a short time. 

It was just a small neighborhood theater, but it was loved by its community and not being able to preserve it through photography is one of my biggest regrets since I started After the Final Curtain.

The Wollaston Theatre in Quincy, MA, originally opened in 1926, and had 1,100 seats. It featured vaudeville shows and silent films in its early days, but like many other early 20th century theaters, switched to “talkies” or motion pictures with sound in the early 1930s. 

The “Wolly” as it was known to locals, was owned by Edward Sears and his family for over 50 years, and was sold to Arthur and Yvonne Chandler in 1979. The Chandlers ran the concession stand and the ticket booth themselves, making it a family owned and operated business.

Eventually the theater became known for $1 nights with second run movies and one dollar concessions. The condition of the interior deteriorated over time, and the Chandlers could not keep up with repairs. They closed the theater in 2003. Arthur Chandler passed away in 2008, and Yvonne sold the theater to Miao Kun Fang, the owner of the C-Mart grocery store chain, in 2012.

The Wollaston had been added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. However, that didn’t stop it from being demolished in June 2016. The former site of the theater is now a parking lot. Fang has proposed building a six-story condo building on the site.