Carolina Theatre

117 S. Dargan Street,
Florence, SC 29506

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rivest266
rivest266 on August 27, 2023 at 10:20 am

This opened in 1913 as the 2nd O'Dowd theatre per Early Florance cinema historyEarly Florance cinema history 24 Dec 1933, Sun Florence Morning News (Florence, South Carolina) Newspapers.com

rivest266
rivest266 on August 19, 2023 at 11:42 am

Reopened June 27th, 1975, as Cinema 5 by Stewart & Everett and closed or placed its last ad on January 22nd, 1984. 1975 ad posted.

RickB
RickB on September 15, 2021 at 7:22 pm

Abandoned Southeast has a feature on this theater. According to this site, the first Carolina Theatre was destroyed in a 1939 fire and rebuilt on the same site, with the new theater opening April 1, 1940. The Carolina showed movies into the 1970s, then hosted a church into the 1980s, then was abandoned. Eventually the City of Florence acquired the building and is said to be renovating it into an events space, with a target opening date of Spring 2022.

SethG
SethG on February 15, 2019 at 10:17 am

Façade has been restored recently. The cheap plastic marquee and ugly letters are gone, the left porthole was reopened, but for some reason they’ve mounted two industrial-looking floodlights on the front.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 9, 2009 at 12:32 am

Here is an October 1970 ad from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/myrc3y

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on June 9, 2009 at 12:17 am

Here is an October 1950 ad from the Florence Morning News:
http://tinyurl.com/m56y8o