The Adams Theatre in downtown Newark, New Jersey, was designed in the Beaux-Arts style by architect William E. Lehman. The theater first opened in January 1912 as the Shubert Theatre for Broadway tryouts and revivals. (PET 1)
In1939, two Greek immigrant brothers rechristened the theater the Adams—an homageto the new family surname they adopted when coming to America. In theearly-1950s, the theater flirted with the notion of staging burlesqueperformances, which were swiftly made illegal by the city of Newark, a matterthat eventually reached the US Supreme Court. (PET 2)
Proctor’s Theater in Troy, New York, was designed by architect Arland W. Johnson in Neo-Gothic style, resembling a Medieval cathedral. (PET 3)
Though it originally opened as a vaudeville theater, itsowner realized the potential of motion pictures and had begun adapting histheater to the new medium. (PET 4)
The Irem Temple in northeast Pennsylvania wasbuilt by the Shriners as a social recreational center to host community events.Designed by the local firm of Fred Olds and F. Willard Puckey in 1907, thebuilding is in the Moorish Revival style, an unusually early example of a stylethat was popular in the 1920s. (PET 5)
Noble Hall was built in 1908 in the Colonial Revival style on the campus of Connecticut Valley State Hospital. By then, the hospital was nearly 40 years old and had about 3,000 patient residents. (PET 6)
The theater once hosted not only theater and film showings for the hospital, but also high school graduations, church services, and area performing arts groups (PET 7)
Opened on February 16, 1929, the 2,000-seat Uptown Theater in Philadelphia was built for sound, specifically the new “talkies.” Designed by Louis Magaginer, it featured a lavish Art Deco interior. The Movietone sound system allowed the Uptown to show talking motion pictures as soon as it opened. Vaudeville acts were also part of the regular bill, and—unlike many of its contemporaries—the Uptown held vaudeville performances until 1950. (PET 8)
Commissioned by Buffalo, New York, real estate investor and retailer John G. Sattler, the Sattler Theatre opened in 1914 as a 928-seat theater constructed in the Beaux-Arts style. After its life as movie house, it served several religious congregations until it was finally abandoned in 1996. (PET 9)
