Broad Street - Thalhimers - 1969

What better way to celebrate the first official day of the holiday shopping season than a picture of Broad Street and Thalhimers from (near the end of) it's heyday?

This is Broad Street looking east from January of 1969. You can still see the large plastic candles and Christmas trees in the median. Also note the Wards TV store (later Circuit City), and The Towne (now The National) showing Funny Girl. West Hospital is in the distance, as is the crane and yellow tarps that signal the beginnings of the "new" City Hall.

Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries

Broad Street - 1957

From RPI's 1957 Cobblestone yearbook I present to you: Broad Street in 1957, looking West. You can see The National on the right to give you an idea of where this shot was taken.

Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries

Vampire Hookers at Loew's Theatre - 1978

One year before the Loew's Theatre on Grace Street closed, and 5 years before it reopened as the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts (now the Carpenter Theatre), it showed this classic (sarcasm) starring David Carridine. Can you imagine this title on the marquee today?

Ridge Cinema Fourplex - 1983

Today, in one of my first "West End" posts, I give you a fantastic ad from 1983 for the fine Ridge Cinemas. It was built at 1510 E. Ridge Road in 1970 with two large screens. When it closed in 2002 it had expanded to seven screens. It was demolished in 2004. I saw many a great movie there. The site is now occupied by a Kroger. I love this ad--it looks like the bad clip art family is pushing the logo across the page. And look at the movies that were playing!

Broad Street - 1905

Today I give you another great shot of Broad Street from the early 20th century. Today's image is taken from roughly the same area (and maybe on the same day?) as the picture in this post. Except that instead of looking South, here we're looking East towards Church Hill. Note "Old" City Hall on the right in the distance.

There's so much going on in this picture that I split the most interesting scenes up into five different images. Enjoy!

Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress

State Theatre Grand Opening film - 1933

Keeping with the theme of my last post, here's a silent newsreel highlighting the grand opening of The State Theatre at 712 East Broad St. on October 25th, 1933.

This theater opened as the Broadway Theater in 1919, reopened as The State in 1933, and closed for good in 1981. The building was demolished when the Theater Row Office Building was built in the early 90s, but it almost looks like some of the facade survived...Or did they just mimic some of the facade from The Colonial that they saved? Anyone know?

Video courtesy of the Internet Archive

Colonial and State Theaters - October 1975

The Colonial Theater opened on the 700 block of East Broad St. in 1921. At one time this section of Broad was known as "Theater Row" because popular theaters like The National, The Bijou, The State, The Lubin and The Colonial all were within a few blocks. The Colonial Theater closed in the early 80s, and the building was mostly demolished in the early 90s, although the facade was preserved as part of the Theater Row Office Building that took it's place in 1993. Today, VCU occupies the building. Part of The State Theater can be seen at the left.

Photo courtesy of VCU Libraries