Village Theatre

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Uploaded on: March 7, 2024

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From December 1963, this article and artwork announced the start of construction on the Briarcliff Village Shopping Center. Note that the artwork shows two grocery stores as well as a Belk’s as the three anchors. I do not know if the center opened as scheduled that summer but Belk’s never did. At some point that deal fell through and in April 1965 Martin’s Village Theater opened three months after Martin opened the nearby Eastgate at the Suburban Plaza Shopping Center.

On May 3, 1968 these two theaters (along with the Westgate Twin which had opened on the same day as the Eastgate) were sold to Georgia Theater Company. In January GTC twinned the small house at Westgate and in May did split the Village. In September of that year they also twinned the Eastgate which had been renamed Suburban Plaza Theater when GTC took over.

This was the way these locations operated for the rest of their runs as they were outclassed by the newer twins, triples, quads and eights that were soon on the way. They each went through the dollar house phase as well as opening on weekends only, and in the case of Westgate actually being closed for an entire winter once. Village closed at the end of 1989, the Westgate in 1988, and the Eastgate / Suburban Plaza in 1984.

The Village was converted to an Office Max, the Westgate was home to a variety of bars and amusement centers but stands empty last I saw, and the Suburban was demolished with a Winn Dixie grocery store built in its place with actual footprint being occupied as the loading dock area.