Monroe Theatre

The Monroe Theatre, 8-13 The historic Monroe Theatre's side with the American Flag

See Gone, But Not Forgotten

References

Cinema Treasures

Flickr

• Theater History on CinemaTreasures/org

The Monroe Theatre was home to many things in its rich history, including an actual stage theatre, a single screen Cinerama, and up until 2008, Show World, a local pornography store.

Many people fondly recall this theatre housing productions and films in their childhood and past. This included films such as The Sound of Music, Oklahoma and several Disney Children's Classics.

The theatre opened in 1927 and was converted to a Cinerama in 1960. It still showed mainstream films until 1970, when it started showing pornographic films instead, which abated in 1995.

Show World closed the theatre in 2008, and rumors of the city having the building demolished have surfaced. The city was rumored to at one point purchase the theater in order to convert it to a performing arts house.

Demolition of the rear portion of the building commenced in September 2008. The front facade will be preserved as per court order.

The exterior has been painted in bold colors, neon, and black. This was purported to have been brought about when there was contention over the historical value of the building.

An American flag was added to the North facing wall after terrorist attacks in NYC on September 11, 2001.

Asbestos Work Order 09-2008

Despite some claims of an unfounded destruction of the theatre, the picture to the right was a work order found on the theatre in Sept. 2008. The work order itself was from 8/22/08.

After the green paint was blasted off, 10-2008

The old marquee, 10-2008

Comments:

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2012-05-12 09:27:59   Okay, now that it's been fixed up can we please put something in there and clean up the vacant lot next door? —EileenF

2021-04-23 04:53:32   The building has been sitting vacant for years...yet the marquee still remains. This is the perfect spot for a grindhouse theatre! —JimV

2022-10-27 14:09:08   We'd like to put in a Comedy Theater. —monroecomedy