Category:Colonial Theater, Allentown, Pennsylvania

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Object location40° 36′ 11″ N, 75° 28′ 07″ W Kartographer map based on OpenStreetMap.View all coordinates using: OpenStreetMapinfo
Main Wikipedia article: Colonial Theater (Allentown, Pennsylvania).
<nowiki>Colonial Theatre; Colonial Theatre; Colonial Theatre; Colonial Theatre; antiguo cine de Allentown, Pensilvania, Estados Unidos; ancienne salle de cinéma à Allentown, Pennsylvanie, États-Unis; former movie theater in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States; ehemaliges Kino in Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA; bioscoop in Allentown, Verenigde Staten van Amerika; Colonial Theater; Three City Center</nowiki>
Colonial Theatre 
former movie theater in Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States
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LocationAllentown, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania
Street address
  • 313-17 Hamilton Street, Allentown, PA 18101
Inception
  • 1920
Date of official opening
  • 1920
Date of official closure
  • 1982
Dissolved, abolished or demolished date
  • 2005
Map40° 36′ 12″ N, 75° 28′ 07″ W
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The Colonial Theater was a grand silent-era stage theater and cinema, located at 513-17 Hamilton Street in the Downtown Business and Shopping District of Allentown. Opened in 1920, it had over 1,814 seats with two balconies, making it the largest theater in the city. Initially built as a cinema, in 1924 it was adapted for stage Vaudeville acts, with dressing rooms and additions equipment added, along with the stage being expanded in size. The Vaudeville acts ended with the fading out of the entertainment format by 1930, however In February 1935, it was the site of a live national radio network broadcast of "Amos and Andy".

The theater was modified for sound films in June 1929 with the addition of an RCA sound system, and beginning in the 1930s, was the grand cinema of the city. In 1962, the theater was closed for a major renovation, reopening in early 1963. By the mid-1970s, the theater was declining, along with the general fortunes of the Hamilton Street shopping district, and began to show second-run ane even third-run films to reduce costs. By the 1980s, the Colonial began to lose money. Eventually the theater was closed on September 24th, 1982.

After the closure, the Colonial was discussed in some government development projects that went nowhere due to lack of available funding The theater was eventually purchased by a new owner, Mark Mendleson, in 1988 an investor from Philadelphia. The theater remained, becoming more and more blighted with minimal maintenance carried out on the building in order to satisfy city building codes only. Eventually the City of Allentown seized and condemned the property in 2005; tearing it down as un-restoreable, fencing off the gravel lot and offering it for sale.

In 2011, the property was purchased as part of the Allentown Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) initiative and today the Three City Center office building stands in its place.

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