Strand Theatre
125 Water Street,
Norwich,
CT
06360
125 Water Street,
Norwich,
CT
06360
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Sheedy's New Auditorium Theatre
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Sheedy’s New Auditorium Theatre was opened on September 16, 1908. It presented vaudeville & live theatre, but began screening movies in 1909. It was remodeled in 1919 and reopened as a movie theatre on November 15, 1919 with Nazimova in “The Red Lantern” & Larry Semon in “The Head Waiter”. It was renamed Strand Theatre. There is a 1929 handbill for the Strand Theatre promoting Frank Capra’s “Flight”. The Strand Theatre was still open in 1943. It was condemned in 1944 and was demolished.
It was rebuilt in 1946 and opened as the Lord Theatre (not to be confused with the former Lord’s Midtown/Midtown Cinema which has its own page on Cinema Treasures).
Contributed by
Gerald A. DeLuca
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
Michael R Sheedy’s New Auditorium Theatre opened at what appears to be a present-day parking lot at 125 Water Street on September 16, 1908. (The Auditorium may well date previously without Sheedy but records aren’t too solid and a 1946 report on the venue’s demolition also states a 1908 opening.) Sheedy’s main programming was live theater and vaudeville but he played a heavy dose of motion pictures beginning in 1909 forward. In December of 1909, plans for a neighboring and spectacular Auditorium Hotel were released opening after more than two years of construction on July 18, 1912.
In October of 1919, the Auditorium was retrofitted to better play motion pictures beginning November 15, 1919 with Nazimova in “The Red Lantern” supported by Larry Semon in “The Head Waiter.” The Strand was updated with sound to remain viable but its proximity to the temperamental Yantic River proved to be its downfall.
A horrific and unrelated fatal fire in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1944 led to inspections that would end the Strand Theatre. During a fire safety inspection not long after yet another flood had closed the Strand in 1944, a local inspector stripped both the Strand and Mystic of their licenses to operate on July 24, 1944. Both were due to two major floods that had compromised the buildings' support and foundation with rotted piers. The local Empire Theatre would face similar inspections on August 3, 1944 and it, too, was closed but this time for fire egress issues. The Strand’s foundation was deemed too far gone to attempt a repair -especially given Wartime material shortages - and it was demolished.
The new building for operator Edward P. Lord, the Lord Theatre, was started in 1946 with all but the rear brick wall of the Strand demolished. Architect Charles Abramowitz of New Haven build a very safe venue that included not wood but ten ton steel and concrete beams. The new Lord Theater appears to have opened October 22, 1946.
A question might occur to one - had they fixed the rotted piers and foundation, could the Strand Theatre / Auditorium have survived into modern times? The answer is a definitive “no” as the replacement theater, Lord’s Theatre, Lord Bowling Alleys, and the Auditorium Hotel were no match for urban renewal. In 1965, an Urban Renewal plan - one leading to Thames Plaza that took the place of the Auditorium Hotel - would have assuredly taken the place of a fortified Strand… as it did the Lord Theater. The Water-Commerce Street Redevelopment Project took out the Lord Theatre. Edward Lord would buy the Palace Theatre - operated by Stanley Warner from 1926 to 1964 - while additionally building the Plainfield Indoor-Outdoor Theatre to offset the loss of this venue.
The former Strand’s spot served as a parking area for the octagonal Harftord National Bank & Trust Building. A 1965 plaque more or less was a tribute to the former commercial district that housed the Auditorium Hotel and its neighboring Auditorium turned Strand Theatre.