Hand painted signs on the side of buildings were a common way to advertise businesses – often the ones in the buildings on which the sign appeared. Richmond has many of these surviving old signs, but I was surprised to come across this very modest one in the Oregon Hill neighborhood. “Notions” is a once-trendy […]
The Rivoli Theatre opened on April 22, 1922 in Rutherford, New Jersey. It had 2,200 seats when it opened and was a combination vaudeville and silent film house. The first photograph was taken before the theater opened and was used in newspaper and trade publications to advertise the Rivoli’s opening. Like many other theaters of […]
The Capitol Theatre opened on November 21, 1921. Like many other theaters of its day, it was a vaudeville and silent picture theater that converted into “talkies” a few years after opening. It closed on April 22, 1974, after a building inspector found multiple violations. It was purchased by the City of New London in […]
America’s Oldest County Fair, the Topsfield Fair, was started in February 1818 by the Essex County Agricultural Society as a cattle show. It was originally a way for the local farming communities to get together and exchange ideas and farming methods. The fair was held in different locations in Essex County until 1895, when it […]
Loew’s Boulevard Theatre opened in the Bronx, NY on November 1, 1913. Marcus Loew, founder of Loew’s Incorporated, attended the opening night celebrations. It opened as a silent film and vaudeville theater, but was remodeled to show motion pictures only in 1932. The theater was remodeled again in the late 1950s/early 1960s with a lot of […]
The Loew’s Majestic Theatre opened on November 4, 1922 in Bridgeport, Connecticut as Poli’s Majestic Theatre. It was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb for theater mogul Sylvester Z. Poli, who also owned the nearby Palace Theatre in Waterbury, Connecticut. The Majestic was sold to Loew’s Theatres Incorporated in 1934 and was renamed to Loew’s Majestic. Loew’s closed the Majestic in 1967, eventually selling […]
The Uptown Theatre opened on February 16, 1929, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The 2,040-seat theater was used for vaudeville and motion pictures before switching to live performances. It closed in the later 1970s, and reopened as a church in the 1980s. The roof was damaged by a storm in 1991, and the church left the building. […]
Philadelphia’s only art déco movie palace, The Boyd Theatre, opened on Christmas day in 1928. The 2,450 seat theater was initially intended to be a movie theater and rarely presented live performances. It was sold in 1971 to the SamEric Corporation, who renovated the theater, renamed it the SamEric Theatre, and added three additional screens in […]
Get your Gobble on.. Thanksgiving Day thru Sunday the largest combined classic car show and swap meet in the USA. The car show boasts over 5000 show cars, plus over 1500 cars available for sale. The swap meet has over 1500 vendors all held outdoors on 480 acres. Last year’s attendance had over a 160,000 […]
Postscript! Richmond’s 1904 trolley boycott preceded Rosa Park’s protest in Montgomery, AL by almost 50 years. The Black community that chose to walk instead of ride segregated trolley cars was credited with causing the Virginia Passenger & Power Co. to declare bankruptcy. It’s hard to look beyond the enormity of the Civil War when […]
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