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Waynesboro’s Arcade Theater
by Richard D. L. Fulton
Waynesboro’s Arcade Theater was built in 1916, at 75 West Main Street (71-79 West Main Street, according to the Waynesboro Historical Society), Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, and continued to be in operation into the early 1960s.
Word began to spread in 1914 that a major theater project for Waynesboro was about to commence, when a story entitled “Arcade People View Theaters in the Cities” in the July 15, 1914, edition of the Waynesboro Record.
The newspaper reported, “A.R. Warner, Simon Wiener and Henry Riddlesberger, of the Arcade corporation, returned home Friday evening, from a visit to New York City, Philadelphia and Baltimore,” noting further that the nature of this venture was to inspect “a number of theaters and obtain new ideas for the decorating and general construction of theaters.”
The newspaper further reported that the purpose of this tour was part of a plan to construct a theater in Waynesboro, which would occupy the rear of a new “arcade” building to be constructed on West Main Street.
By November, site-preparation was in full swing, when the Waynesboro Record reported on November 18 that the new arcade and theater was to be erected on “the old Capt. Snively and the Eldon lots on West Main Street,” and that the arcade corporation already has crews working on the proposed site “cleaning up the premises, removing fences, etc.”
The newspaper further noted that architect J.W. Woltz had been engaged to design the theater and arcade and that the theater, which would occupy the rear of the new building, would be completed and in operation before the arcade was to be completed.
The officers of the Arcade Company were also identified as Dr. Joseph Enniss, president, D. Norris Benedict and A.R. Warner, vice-presidents, and Roy M. Lehman, secretary. Plans for the “three-story” arcade and theater were revealed in more detail in the June 16, 1915, edition of the Waynesboro Record, in which the newspaper reported that the building would occupy an 84.5-foot frontage on West Main Street (the arcade owners subsequently decided to make it a four-story structure).
The theater portion of the arcade officially opened on September 28, 1916, the grand opening of which was announced in the September 27 edition of the Waynesboro Record under the headline, “Big $130,000 Arcade Building’s Completest Feature is Theater,” further noting that the theater was modeled after the style of the Philadelphia Metropolitan Opera House.
(For a more definitive description of the new arcade theater, please refer to the September 27, 1916, edition of the Waynesboro Record.)
During the grand opening, the first film was shown to the attendees, that being “the 11-reel Roman drama, “Cabiria,” the story of a wealthy Sicilian girl kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Carthage. Two projectors that had been installed made the transitioning between reels essentially seamless.
When movies were not in progress, the theater operators permitted use of the space for religious gatherings; for social organizations, such as the Young Men’s Christian Association; and for musical performances. The first preacher to actually preach in the theater was identified as the Reverand Doctor J.M. Francis of the Lutheran Church, according to the October 30, 1916, edition of The Daily Record and Blue Ridge Zephyr.
Waynesboro residents were given an opportunity of even seeing themselves on the big screen on September 10, 1918, when the theater featured a film that had been made of the Waynesboro Labor Day parade.
Waynesborotheatre.org noted on their website, “During the silent-film era, a pipe organ provided accompaniment at the Arcade…”
Although the Arcade Theater seemed to have “gone dark” as far as press coverage after the 1920s, according to the Waynesboro Historical Society, the Arcade continued to show “Western movies in the 1940s and 1950s.
The Arcade Theater building was sold by Warner Bros. Theatres, Inc., on February 24, 1954, to Transamerica Waynesboro Realty Corp., “which then sold the property to N.W.O. Inc. on February 20, 1966,” according to waynesborotheatre.org. Subsequently, N.W.O. demolished the arcade building and built a new building, in which the Waynesboro Theatre is presently located.
For additional information on the history of the Arcade Theater and the Waynesboro Theatre, please visit the Waynesboro Theatre website at waynesborotheatre.org.
Waynesboro’s Arcade Theater
