The Colonial Theater was located at 10 Congress Street in downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The theater opened around 1920 and originally presented vaudeville performances and motion pictures. It had seating for approximately 1,250 patrons, divided between 850 orchestra seats and 400 balcony seats. The Colonial was among several downtown movie houses operating in Portsmouth during the first half of the twentieth century, competing with the Olympia, Arcadia, and Music Hall.
By the 1930s, the Colonial had become an established movie house. A surviving program from December 1937 advertises Stage Door, starring Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, along with other films and short subjects. A 1941 MGM theater survey described the building as being in fair condition and documented its seating arrangement. The auditorium featured a proscenium arch, decorative columns, paneled balcony walls, and ornamental fabric. Although parts of the interior were eventually covered during modernization, much of the original decoration survived into the 1980s.
Around 1963, the Colonial was acquired by E.M. Loew’s Theatres, which continued operating the theater until the mid-1980s. In 1964, a two-alarm fire destroyed the adjacent Rogers Block. The Colonial survived, although its marquee was damaged and subsequently renovated. After the movie theater closed, the property was acquired by neighboring Eagle Photo, which occupied the former Hunking Wentworth house beside the theater.
The rear auditorium was demolished in 1989, leaving the Congress Street entrance and lobby standing. That section survived another sixteen years before the Eagle Photo block was demolished in 2005. A large brick commercial and residential development replaced the buildings. Today, no visible portion of the Colonial Theater remains.
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