Ohio Theater To Be Demolished
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Ohio Theater To Be Demolished
By Devin Loftus | Online Only | July 20, 2010
An abandoned theater in Middletown, Ohio—the
last building left on half a block of Central
Avenue—awaits its demolition, with little hope for
salvation.
Located between the busy east side of Middletown
and the deteriorating historic buildings of its west
side, the 1929 Studio Theater was scheduled to be
demolished last year, when its neighboring
buildings were razed, but the city ran out of
funding. The city is now accepting bids for the
The 1929 Studio Theater, located in Middletown,
Ohio, southwest of Dayton, will be demolished.
Credit: CHAPS
theater's demolition, which will take place as soon
as the city finds the money.
"It could be this year, it might be beyond that," says Mike Robinette, economic development
director for Middletown.
While some community members are nostalgic about the historic theater, no one has
proposed a solution thus far.
Opened as the Strand Theater on October 23, 1929, the movie house stood as part of a
thriving little All-American city. The Strand closed in 1959 and reopened as the Studio Theater
in 1964 after a renovation. The west side of Middletown was a place where now-lifeless
storefronts once housed dress shops, restaurants, department stores, hardware shops—all
locally owned stores, explains Cynda Kash, Middletown resident and board member of
Citizens for Historic and Preservation Services, or CHAPS. East Middletown, an area booming
with chain businesses and new development, has left the west side of Middletown a ghost
town, she says.
http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/todays-news/ohio-theater... 2/20/2011
Ohio Theater To Be Demolished
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"[Downtown] hustled. It was alive. … A great peace of Americana," Kash recalls. "It was
almost magical. Middletown was your town, your people."
Closed off and on since 1984, the Studio Theater is now a vastly different place, and with
miniscule local involvement, Kash explains, few see what it could be again.
Last September, the theater's owner, Butler Realty Co., donated the building to the City of
Middletown. The city targeted the Studio, along with several other structures along Central
Avenue, as part of a demolition effort to rid the city of blight.
Due to lack of funding from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, the city
deferred the theater's demolition. What will become of the site following demolition remains
uncertain. "We hope to redevelop it into housing," Robinette says.
Robinette explains that the site of the Studio Theater is outside of the core of downtown and
that a previous owner stripped it of its contents. The city, Robinette says, would certainly
welcome proposals for the site if any were to be presented. As of yet, he says, no one has
approached the city with plans for refurbishing the existing structure.
"We keep losing our history," Kash says. "We need a savior, some type of visionary here."
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http://www.preservationnation.org/magazine/2010/todays-news/ohio-theater... 2/20/2011