Paris Cinema

68 Franklin Street,
Worcester, MA 01608

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Additional Info

Architects: Roger Garland

Styles: Atmospheric, Spanish Renaissance

Previous Names: Capitol Theatre

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News About This Theater

Paris Cinema

The 2,500-seat Capitol Theatre opened on December 11, 1926, one of downtown Worcester’s movie palaces. It was designed by architect Roger Garland in an Atmospheric/Spanish Renaissance style. It was equipped with a Wurlitzer theatre organ. It was twinned and reopened December 25, 1956. In April 1982 it became an adult cinema and the name changed to Paris Cinema. The original Atmospheric style theatre auditorium was still in use.

The Paris Cinema was closed down by the authorities in January 2006. The building deteriorated over the years and it was demolished in July 2017.

Contributed by Gerald A. DeLuca

Recent comments (view all 42 comments)

nvargelis
nvargelis on March 21, 2010 at 7:35 am

CORRECTION! I made a mistake in the above post, the URL for the Flickr set of the interior of the Paris Cinema is:

View link

enjoy

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on November 15, 2010 at 10:58 am

Still sitting empty when I biked by it last night. Were all the theatres called ‘Paris’ (in Boston, Worcester, NYC, and elsewhere) once linked together in a chain?

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 19, 2011 at 4:32 am

Preservation Worcester provides this page about the Capitol Theatre, with four small photos of interior details and a few paragraphs of text. The Capitol was placed on the organization’s “most endangered” list in 2005.

rsalters (Ron Salters)
rsalters (Ron Salters) on March 18, 2012 at 10:45 am

The owners of the building recently offered to donate the huge “Paris” sign out front to a local preservation office to sell as a fund-raiser. Most collectors of theater memorabilia would not have room for it!

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on April 28, 2012 at 12:47 am

The theater’s sign is up for auction, and a developer has plans to raze the theater and adjacent structures: View article

Ron Newman
Ron Newman on April 28, 2012 at 3:29 am

Is there another still-operating Paris Cinema (perhaps the one in NYC) who could use the sign?

RickB
RickB on May 7, 2012 at 5:52 pm

“…the building behind it is due for replacement.” Ah, euphemism.

spectrum
spectrum on January 29, 2016 at 3:27 pm

As of early 2016, the building is still there intact.

megze
megze on August 3, 2016 at 7:05 am

Recent photos of the inside of the theater: http://www.masslive.com/news/worcester/index.ssf/2016/08/we_explored_the_old_paris_cine.html

Matt Lambros
Matt Lambros on June 27, 2017 at 7:21 am

I photographed the theater before demolition started. Check out some images and a short history at After the Final Curtain

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