The Newton Theatre

History:

In January 1923, the Newton Amusement Corporation awarded the construction contract for a stadium-type theater, capable of seating 1,000 people, to William Houghton. It was designed in "Colonial Style" by Reilly and Hall of New York. Load-bearing columns, consisting of 50 tons of steel supplied by the Submarine Boat Corporation of Newark, made the building of "the safest type known to modern engineering science." Tapestry brick, pilasters and niches of ornamental stonework, and a marquise with 180 electric lights decorated the facade.

Newton Theatre opened May 15, 1924. At that time, it was considered the most imposing theatre in any town of the size of Newton east of the Mississippi. A Griffith-Beach theater organ was installed in the Newton Theater in 1924.