Exeter Street Theatre facts for kids
The Exeter Street Theatre is a historic building in Boston, Massachusetts. It stands in the Back Bay area, at the corner of Exeter and Newbury Streets. This building was first built as a church, the First Spiritual Temple, between 1884 and 1885. The architects who designed it were Hartwell and Richardson. For 70 years, from 1914 to 1984, it was a popular movie house. Today, the building is home to the Kingsley Montessori School.
Building's Story
The Exeter Street Theatre building has a rich history. It started as a church, the First Spiritual Temple. In 1914, a wealthy woman named Mrs. Hattie M. Ayer and her friends decided to turn the church into a cinema. Clarence Blackall was the architect who helped redesign the building for movies. The new cinema could hold about 900 people!
Even after it became a movie theater, a group called the Working Union of Progressive Spiritualists continued to meet in a lower part of the building. They stayed there until 1974. After that, the congregation moved to Brookline and later to Harwich.
The movie theater closed its doors in 1984. Many people were sad to see it go. Since then, the building has been used for different businesses. It was once a Conran's housewares store and a Waterstones bookstore. By 1988, it housed a TGI Friday's Restaurant and offices. From 2000 to 2003, a business consulting company called Idealab used space there. Finally, in 2005, the building became the Kingsley Montessori School, which it remains today.
One of the old electric signs from the cinema was saved in 1985 by a collector named Dave Waller.
Movies Shown
Over its many years as a cinema, the Exeter Street Theatre showed a wide variety of films. Here are just a few examples from different decades:
1910s Films
- The Foundling
- Tess of the Storm Country
1920s Films
- A Virtuous Vamp
- Haunting Shadows
- Stronger Than Death by Robert Z. Leonard
- Live Sparks
- Passion Flower
- Just Out of College
- Sowing the Wind
- Haunted Spooks
- Pink Gods
- The Man Who Saw Tomorrow
- East is West
Later Films
- The Endless Summer (1960s)
- Testament by Lynne Littman (1980s)
- The Leopard (1980s)
- "The Man Who Skied Down Everest" (1980s)
Images for kids
-
Detail of a map of Boston, showing the First Spiritual Temple, (1896, before it became a cinema)
-
A close-up of Hartwell and Richardson's building design (around 1880s-1890s, before it was a cinema)
