The Norwood Theatre at 109 Central Street opened on August 31, 1927. It was built by the Premier Theatre Company and designed by Norwood architect William G. Upham, who was also responsible for several other prominent buildings in town. Upham designed the theater in a Spanish Romanesque style to fit with the new civic buildings being constructed around Norwood’s Town Square.
The theater was originally designed for movies, with a full stage that also allowed for vaudeville and other live performances. It originally seated more than 1,200 people between the orchestra and balcony. By the 1940s it was primarily operating as a movie house, and in the 1970s the balcony was separated from the main auditorium to create a second screen.
The Norwood closed as a regular movie theater in November 1997 and became the home of the Fiddlehead Theatre Company. Fiddlehead presented musical theater there until 2009. Susan Lewis purchased the building in 2010 and began an extensive restoration. The partitions dividing the auditorium were removed, original plasterwork was repaired, and the theater was returned to a single auditorium with 731 seats.
The restored Norwood Theatre reopened on August 31, 2012, exactly 85 years after its original opening. Unlike a lot of the theaters I photograph, there was still enough left here to put back together. Today, it operates as a performing arts center and still hosts concerts, live shows, and occasional film screenings.
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