View of the auditorium from the side of the balcony.
The Everett Square Theatre opened in 1915 in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts. It was designed by Boston architect Harry M. Ramsay for the Littlefield Trust, the original owner of the theater. The 798 seat theater cost $65,000 ($1.5 million in 2014 when adjusted for inflation) to build, and was part of the M&P Theatre circuit.
Franklin Park Theatre Dorchester, MA
Help me pick the next blog post on After the Final Curtain! Cast a vote for the theater you’d like to see next on the site, and whichever has the most votes by Thursday 6/19 will be featured in a blog post on Friday 6/20!
View from the balcony of the Adams Theatre.
View from the balcony of the Russell Theatre.
Everett Square Theatre Boston, MA
View from the balcony of the Logan Theatre in Philadelphia, PA
Thanks for voting! The Russell Theatre is the winner!
Introducing: the Snapshot Series – Occasionally in my travels I come across a theater that I can’t find a lot of information on, or that I only have a chance to photograph for an hour or two. They’re still beautiful and fascinating, so they definitely have a place on After the Final Curtain.
View from the back of the auditorium.
The Liberty Theatre opened in 1922 in Dorchester, MA. It was operated by New England Theatres and showed primarily silent films. The 898-seat theater was in poor shape by 1941 and was later sold to ATC Theatres. In 1949, the Liberty was remodeled and reopened as an art house theater, but ended up closing in the 1950s. It was used as a household appliance warehouse in the 1960’s and later as a church until 1977, when it was converted to a warehouse for storage.
The lobby of the Liberty Theatre.
The Liberty Theatre was demolished in early 2013.
Much of the theater had been demolished before I had the chance to photograph it.
A close up of the proscenium arch.
A close up of some of the remaining plasterwork in the lobby.
© Matthew Lambros and After the Final Curtain, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Matthew Lambros and After the Final Curtain with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
The main level of the auditorium.
I recently spoke with Kathy McKean – the Managing Director of the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts. MIFA owns and is renovating the Victory Theatre in Holyoke, MA.
1. What is MIFA?
“MIFA is a Holyoke based International Festival that brings world-class events to Holyoke and the Pioneer Valley. MIFA’s 2011 Season included Hal Holbrook in ‘Mark Twain Tonight’ and Silent Film Night The Last Command. Other presentations in Holyoke have been Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’, contemporary Irish Dance in ‘Irish Cream’, Eddie Palmieri in Concert, a series of French Dance, Enchanted Circle Theatre in ‘Sojourners Truth’ and Mikhail Baryshnikov 2004 World Tour. MIFA is a vehicle for community restoration and historic and architectural preservation and is renovating and reopening the historic Victory Theatre, a 1600 hundred-seat Broadway style theater in downtown Holyoke. The iconic theater will be returned to its original use as a live theater house for Holyoke, the Valley and the Northeast.”
I recently spoke with Lance Gunberg, a graphic designer and filmmaker who is also the president of Orpheum Rising Project Helpers or O.R.P.H, Inc., which is a non-profit organization dedicated to reviving the theater.
Want to see the Orpheum for yourself? I’m hosting a photography workshop at the theater this fall.
View of the Orpheum Theatre auditorium from the balcony.
The Orpheum Theatre opened on April 15, 1912 — the same day the Titanic sank. Located on Water Street in New Bedford, Massachusetts, it was part of a Beaux-Arts building that was built in 1910 by a French-Canadian group known as Le Club des Francs-Tireurs (The French Sharpshooters Club). The building’s official name is La Salle Francs Tireurs, or French Sharpshooters Hall.
Local architect Louis Destremps — known for his work on the Notre Dame De Lourdes church in Fall River, Massachusetts — designed the building, which included the theater, a ballroom, a shooting range, a gymnasium, retail space and various office and meeting spaces. The Ballroom and Theater served as revenue for the club.
