Music Hall

I see some ads for this theatre in the 1930s call it “Music Hall/Rialto.”

Roland: THE “cylinder” things into which the tubes were inserted were used in several store and were inserted into a pipe (kind of like drive-up windows at banks now). But the ones at the Modern shoe store were the only ones that went up on these clothesline-type wires!

Yes, I knew Albo Vitale who once had an “interesting” store on Lonsdale Ave. where he sold all manner of things, such as fur stoles and portable bars for your living room, etc. At one time this was an IGA Store managed by a friend of my family.

There was a small Fanny Farmer’s store on Main Street next to the Boston Store, which is now the location of the DMV. I don’t know if they sold Planters Peanuts there, but there was indeed a “Mr. Peanut” figure who walked down Main street giving samples! I remember Central Radio on East Ave., across from the Strand Theater, where you could go into a booth and listen to records to try them out. As I mentioned in previous postings, I was a “candy girl” at the Strand when I was in high school, and loved every minute of it! Central Radio was right across the street.

The architects for the Music Hall were Stone & Carpenter out of Providence, RI

For Marialivia; my mother remembers what she calls these ‘cylinder’ things on some ‘strings’ at Peerless Co. He-he, I guess that’s close enough! I do recall a cylinder and vacuum system for some downtown Providence stores like Shepards and the Outlet.

My mother asked me to tickle your memory and so I don’t throw this thread way off target, pardon me if I don’t reply. She wants to know if you remember the name of a downtown store that could have been a Fanny Farmer that sold fresh roasted peanuts and chocolates? Also, she seems to think it was next door to a music store with the record listening booths. The names of both stores if you can remember.

Wow, these are GREAT!! Yes, too bad they felt the need to RE-vitalize something that was very vital already. My first job after high school was in the credit office of the Peerless (I hated that job!), and the store was 4 stories in all, with no remnant of the Music Hall except for that sign etched into the stone on front. I remember well the Modern Shoe Store, where the salesperson took you with your purchase to a service desk where they inserted your sales-slip into a container that was then sent via wires to a “balcony office” above. It looked like a bunch of clothelines! From my early school days in the 40s, there was no Music Hall. The Roger Williams Hotel was always considered “sub rosa,” and I don’t know of the Bard Hotel (although I knew Albo Vitale). If it’s marble, then it must have been the bank that was once there. I do not remember a Dalton’s though.

re: “The building was razed in 1970 for the second pass of the Downtown Revitalization Project.”

I don’t understand the lunatic thinking in a phrase like “Downtown Revitalization Project,” when it refers to the wanton destruction of a great historic building. Do you know if the upstairs theatre part remained during the Peerless years or did that become converted to other uses as well?

Great pictures! I’m assuming that the auditorium itself was not on the ground floor but up a flight, as with the Providence Music Hall.

Here is a picture of Downtown Pawtucket circa 1925. The Music Hall is the first building on the lower right side of the photo. You can see this was before the Art Deco period and Modern Shoe is on the first floor to the right.

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