Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Avalon Theatre destroyed by big fire today!

This is topic Avalon Theatre destroyed by big fire today! in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 07-31-2004, 09:22 PM:

Today, July 31, 2004 the historic Avalon Theatre located at 308 East 4th Avenue in Olympia, Washington was destroyed by a four alarm fire. The first alarm was turned in around 11:00 am by a fire/medic unit that passed the theater on their way to another fire call. The fire started in the rear area of the theater building which was currently being used as "Griswold's Office Supplies".

Here is a brief history of this single screen theater:

Thursday April 26, 1928 Theater opens for business with it's first movie being "The Winning of Barbara Worth" starring Ronald Colman & Vilma Banky. Admission was just 25 cents for adults. The building architects were F.C. Stanton and Joseph Wohleb.

1932 Local theater impressario W.B. "Mac" MacDonald buys the Avalon Theater building & business from Rolla Duncan. Mac MacDonald continues to own it up until 1985 and maintained an office there.

October 1936 Theater gets a major remodel by the B.F. Shearer Company (theater supplier) of Seattle. Seating capacity was 600 in the then brand new Heywood-Wakefield chairs. The sound system gets upgraded with the installation of an RCA "Photophone" sound system (with MI-1040 soundheads).

November 1947 Theater gets another major remodel by the B.F. Shearer Company of Seattle.

Sunday June 1, 1952 Theater closes. Last movies were "Ma and Pa Kettle At the Fair" and "The Magic Carpet" with a Tom & Jerry cartoon. Building sat vacant for 3 years and was converted for retail storefront use.

1955-1962 building was used as Selden's Rugs & Carpets

1963-1966 building vacant

1967-1977 Building was used as the office for the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries.

1977-1992 use unknown

1993-present Building used as Griswold's Office Supplies store

July 31, 2004 Building destroyed by fire

A sad ending to a beautiful building and it's wonderful Spanish architecture styling. [Frown]

Information compiled by me. This theater was only 3/4 of a mile from my apartment. You could see the smoke from the fire for miles. The power company (Puget Sound Energy) cut electric power to all buildings in a 3 block area during the height of the fire. Currently only the entire block the theater is located in is without electric power and natural gas service.

Pictures of this theater are on cinematreasures.org

Posted by Mark Gulbrandsen (Member # 72) on 07-31-2004, 10:07 PM:

This is the sort of thing that makes one wonder if there was some financial problems or something. Ken, please report back after they find the cause of the fire.

I recently did a service call to the olderst running theatre in Nevada. Not much left of the original motif except the stage but this theatre burned down twice in its history, once on Christmas Eve in 1939, and again in the mid 50's but was rebuilt after each fire, the second time for Cinemascope. Today it survives as a twin with 155 seats per auditorium. When it was built it was the largest theatre in Nevada with 1155 seats. Interestingly this theatre which was built in 1920 has had stadium seating through out its life. It has to be one of the earliest stadium jobs left in the country.

Mark @ CLACO

[ 08-01-2004, 08:04 AM: Message edited by: Mark Gulbrandsen ]

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 07-31-2004, 10:11 PM:

Clark Griswold shouldn't be allowed around matches or electricity. Or Stone Henge.

Posted by Tony Bandiera Jr (Member # 2365) on 08-02-2004, 01:58 AM:

Whew, Ken, you gave me a bit of a scare with the title of this thread... [Eek!]

I service the Avalon Theatre on Catalina Island and thought that was the one..

They still have a LOT of the original electrical switchgear throughout the building and have had some close calls in the past...

BTW, I'll try to get permission from the owners to post pics of the booth and building on Film-Tech soon. It is a very interesting location.

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 08-02-2004, 11:05 AM:

Update: The fire dept. is hoping to have the building walls braced up enough today so they can get in to start their investigation. A big section of the roof is gone. Fourth Avenue which is our main eastbound (one way) artery through town remains closed. They are hoping to get one lane open later today. I got some pictures yesterday as the workmen were carving up the awning to install metal post braces.

Posted by Steve Kraus (Member # 476) on 08-02-2004, 09:16 PM:

Is it possibly salvagable or will the walls just be braced long enough to get the bulldozers in?

Posted by Ken Layton (Member # 133) on 08-03-2004, 12:26 AM:

They are talking about bringing in a crane. If they can drop in some steel I beams as roof trusses then this building is salvagable for sure. Of course this depends on if the building owner cares.