Ye Olde Silver Screen
I’m more than a little delighted to find myself now living a 4-minute walk to the theatre; the theatre shows only family-approved first-run features; tickets are $6 and popcorn is a buck. And of course, it’s historical. Well count me in!
In 1916 the Edenton Auditorium Company was incorporated to build an entertainment facility for musicals, theatricals, opera, and other entertainment. In 1917 the lot on South Broad Street was purchased and the Taylor Theatre was built in 1924 by eastern North Carolina’s leading architect, Charles Collins Benton in Colonial Revival and Neo-Classical Revival. The lot was purchased by Mr. Samuel William Taylor and his wife, Ada Leona (Byrum) Taylor who opened the Taylor’s Theatre in 1925 as an opera house. The name changed to Taylor Theatre in 1931. In 1980 it became a twin cinema.
Following storm damage and the film industry announcement that all theatres needed to upgrade to digital, the theatre eventually closed. Many small towns lost their theatre during this transition because of the cost to convert to digital projection.
But this little town of 5,000 started fundraising and citizens contributed coins and checks and along with donations raised the funds necessary to repair and restore the theatre. This year it reopened.
Last Thursday afternoon Dave, Buddy and I walked over to the theatre for the official ribbon cutting. An astonishing number of folks showed up on a Thursday afternoon, but their pride in the theatre, the town, and their ability to work together shone brightly. Buddy parked himself on the lobby carpet and quickly assumed the festivity was for him.
Inside the theatre the seating is comfortable, but made from restored, reused old theatre seats. It’s clean and fresh, no smell of mold or bathrooms, only popcorn. They even sell candy in realistic sizes and prices. The playbills are framed in old-style frames and everything is reminiscent of a time when a movie on Saturday was an easy, safe, affordable outing for kids of all ages.