So I just got back from a cool little trip to the old
Colonial Theater in Valdese, NC. Sadly it has not shown any movies since the 60’s or 70's. I've heard that there was a small fire, and eventually the roof caved in over the main auditorium section. However, a friend of mine now owns the building (2nd owner after the theater shut down) and he took me on a little tour. I told him you all you movie nerds would enjoy it too, so he also let me take some photos!
Here is a shot of the exterior. Unfortunately the marquee is no longer up. At the top of the arch you can see a little white rectangle… that is cement fill where a steel beam used to extend to support the marquee.
These doors, obviously not original, used to form the main entrance into the theater. However, they are now blocked off on the other side and my friends office for his office lies behind them. There are now two other entrances (can be seen in the picture above), the one on the left leads to his business, and the one on the right is currently rented as a hair salon. I didn’t take any pictures of the inside of his office space as it is all currently drywall and drop ceilings. However, apparently the original plaster lobby ceiling with crown moldings are intact and hidden above the drop ceiling!
Next up, the skeletal remains of the balcony! This first shot is the view coming up the balcony stairs and looking back towards the seating. He uses this space mainly for storage... hence the xmas tree.
This is the view back towards the stairs you just came up on. Notice the old railing overlooking the main theater is still intact! Unfortunately, just past this railing is where the building now ends. A metal wall was constructed to divide the building in two – separating the old burnt out half from what was still salvageable as usable space.
Going further into the room, this is where there primary stadium style seating was arranged (just for the balcony of course). Underneath (where the ducting comes out of) is the rounded plaster ceiling I was talking about. It looks like the simply punched a hole in the plaster to feed the ducting into the current offices, but I imagine it would be repairable as most of it looks intact.
This picture is of the space just to the right of the previous picture. These stairs used to lead up to the projection booth.
You can still see the original cut-outs in the wall that the projectors used.
Heading back downstairs and going out what is now the back door takes us to where the main seating and screen used to be. That back wall is where the screen was.
This shot pans left a little… it was just a single screen theater, but it looks like it would have been a pretty decent size screen.
Here is a shot of where the seating would have been. Now just empty beer bottles and weeds
This final shot is of the standing out on the back sidewalk looking back towards what would be the lobby doors on the first floor and the balcony above.
Looking back.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the tour. Let me know if you have any questions!
