Today’s Flashback photo is an undated image of the Prince Theatre on High Street in Chestertown, now home to beloved community theatre, the Garfield Center for the Arts. The Garfield’s website provides a history of the building, which in 1928 was converted from a butcher shop into a theatre. It has remained so ever since, first a movie theatre, and then a venue for live theatre, musical performances, and other community events and presentations. At different times in its history it has been known as the Lyceum, the Chester, the Prince, and now the Garfield.
Readers are invited to share their earliest or most meaningful memories of the theatre in the comments below or via email to [email protected]. Image courtesy of the Historical Society of Kent County.
See you on Saturday at Lawrence Wetlands Preserve!
Billie Carroll says
My mother-in-law, Lillian Carroll,was a “viewer counter” in the Prince in the 1970s. She was hired to sit in the rear of the theater and count the spectators seated. The purpose was to “audit” the ticket sales vs the actual spectators.
A former thespian says
My oldest memory of the Prince theatre is from 1971, at which time it was a movie theatre. I saw the best double feature there that I ever attended: first Patton, followed by Mash!
In 1975, the head of the Drama department at WC, Tim Maloney, who I had spent 4 years studying under, convinced Vince Raymond to allow us to convert the theatre back to a working stage. We did three productions that year: One Flew over The Cuckoos Nest by Ken Keesey, Agatha Christie’s The Moustrap and the musical version of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. We rehearsed the plays in freezing winter in Jack Schroeder’s barn out in Still Pond. The audiences were always full and it was clear we had scratched an itch for live theater downtown. The orchestra seating (those wonderful old iron railed wooden seats with felt cushioned seats and backs) was quite worn so we unbolted many seats from the floor and replaced them with less worn seats from the balcony. The old orchestra seats we had carried out to the sidewalk, and it wasn’t long before many student apartments downtown had those seats as furniture!
Martha Rasin says
I recall 2 life-changing moments.
In the late ’50’s or early ’60’s, when I was around 12, a very popular movie was showing. My line for tickets spilled onto the sidewalk outside. To my right I noticed another line of people waiting to enter a different door. (You can see that door in the photo). There were only black people in that line. I then realized my line was all white people. Of course, I knew there were societal differences between the races but this was my first clear understanding of segregation.
When I was even a bit younger, my parents did not allow me to see horror movies. One Saturday afternoon I lied to them about where I was going and joined some of my friends at the Prince Theatre to watch “The Thing.” Afterwars I was terrified. I went across the street to Stam’s where they let me call my father to come get me. He was puzzled that I didn’t just walk home, but came anyway. For years after I was afraid to go alone to bed on the second floor, worried about monsters, etc. and have never watched a horror movie since.