The recently-closed Hopewell Theater Building at 5 South Greenwood Avenue in Hopewell has been the site of multiple different types of theaters since 1897, from a community hall to movie theater, research center to oldies movie theater, live musical theater to indie arts venue.
The South Greenwood street was opened up around 1896 with the construction of Columbia Hall by the Hook and Ladder Company, with the firehouse and borough offices on the ground floor and a community hall / theater above.
(1897)
The Columbia Hall building was replaced in 1940 by the current building, then the Colonial Playhouse movie theater. Starting in 1956 the building became the “Mirror of America” Gallup polling center, but was unused in the 1970s when it was rented to show old movies as the “Hopewell Theater.” In 1984 it became the Off-Broadstreet Theatre for live theater and children’s shows. The building was renovated in 2017 as the Hopewell Theater indie arts venue, which closed in February 2024 after weathering COVID.
== View the full History Brief report on the Hopewell Theaters (PDF) ==
Contents
Columbia Hall (1897-1939)
The first building constructed on the 5 South Greenwood property was Columbia Hall, built in 1897 by the Hopewell Hook & Ladder Fire Company as a combination firehouse and theater hall.
The first floor was used for the fire company and Boro Council, by community groups, and to hold elections. The second floor featured a lyceum style theater used for events including lectures, performances, dances, and films.
The original specifications were: “size 35 x 50 feet, 2 stories high, first floor ceiling 9 feet – second floor ceiling 14 feet, 2 dry closets outside of building, open fire in hall, 2 stairs, one heater, tin roof.” Additional land was purchased to increase the lot to 41 x 60 feet.
In the following decades, Columbia Hall was used regularly for public events sponsored by local organizations, including local amateur productions and invited outside performers. These included entertainment – lectures, dances, plays, benefits, musical performances, high school performances, etc. – as well as meetings – organization boards, municipal boards, municipal voting, etc.
In 1922, Columbia Hall was reorganized as a public stock company, the Columbia Hall Association, owned by the citizens of Hopewell and independent of the Fire Department, which was being merged into the Hopewell Fire Department.
In 1939, the Columbia Hall Association decided to replace Columbia Hall with a new dedicated motion picture theatre. Columbia Hall was demolished at the end of 1939, and in 1941 the Fire Department moved into the newly-remodeled municipal building across the street at the corner of Columbia Avenue, formerly the Hopewell High School. (See posts on the Hopewell Borough Fire Companies and The Confusing Hopewell Firehouse).
“Columbia Theater” Movies – 1923
Meanwhile, in 1914 the Hope Theater opened around the corner at 16 Seminary Avenue, a 200-seat movie theater that showed silent films and operated until a fire in 1922. Tickets originally were 10 cents for adults and 5 cents for children, growing to 35 and 25 cents respectively in 1920. (See post and full brief on Seminary Avenue History.)
In January 1923, the operators of Hope Theater moved their movies to Columbia Hall, a “larger building with better accommodations.” The building then also was to be known as Columbia Theatre “when used in connection with movies.” Prices for the Saturday night show at 8 o’clock were for 30 cents for adults, 20 cents for children.
In May 1924, the Columbia Theatre announced it was under the new management of Herbert N. Laird, who became owner/operator. In November 1924, the Theatre had two shows on Saturday plus the latest Fox News and Comedy, plus Atlas, the Boy Wonder, appeared in person to pull a Maxwell touring car by his teeth in front the theater. All for 25 cents, 15 for children.
When Columbia Hall was demolished at the end of 1939, Herbert Laird transferred his “photoplay equipment” to the Grammar School Hall (then on Model Avenue). The new venue opened on Christmas night, and planned to be showing movies four nights a week, Wednesday through Sunday. The February 1940 program at the Grammar School Auditorium had one show on Wednesdays and Thursdays, presented at 7:20 and 9:30 pm, and two different features on Friday and Saturday, alternating at 7:00, 8:50, and 10:00 pm. (See post on Hopewell Grammar School Kids and the Model Avenue school.)
Colonial Playhouse (1940-1952)
In 1939, the Columbia Hall Association decided to build a “new modern fireproof ground floor theater.” The design was in the shape of a “T,” with the lobby section facing the street with second-story offices and bathrooms, and the theater section extending behind, made of cinder block and with a sloped floor for theater seating.
The new building was planned to feature an “elaborate and beautiful lobby,” a structure of the “latest style in houses of photoplay.” Funds were to be raised through the issuance of four percent debenture bonds, issued on a ten-year basis, callable on thirty days notice. The entire bond issue of $25,000 was sold.
The new Colonial Playhouse opened May 6, 1940. It was run by Herbert N. Laird, lessee and manager. The opening attraction was Young Tom Edison (1940) with Mickey Rooney. Tickets were 25 cents for evenings, 20 cents for matinees, with children 15 and 10 cents respectively.
The new theater had a capacity of 500, including a block of loge seats, plus seats in the center back with hard-of-hearing aids.
The Colonial Playhouse added an “air-cooling” system for the summer of 1941. With the new slogan “Now Air Conditioned – Cool and Comfortable,” the theater could host a different slate of movies every two days or so, up to every day of the week.
Herbert Laird continued as the owner / manager until his death in December 1950. The Playhouse continued to be run by his wife Vivienne Laird until it finally closed in December 1952.
Friday Night Movies – 1940s
Hopewell Borough residents Virginia Lewis and Elaine Zeltner remember attending the Colonial Playhouse as children starting in the early 1940s. Friday nights were “kids night,” with groups of kids around 9 or 10 years old walking from home, and more arriving from Pennington on the bus to meet up at the theater. Friday nights might be a fun western movie, maybe with Roy Rogers or Hopalong Cassidy. Wednesdays evenings were more for adults, with murder mysteries, and Sundays were more musicals with Betty Grable type shows.
Virginia Lewis recalls: “The building was warm in the cold weather, and luxurious, with the new carpeting and nice upstairs bathrooms.” The kids also appreciated the candy machine in the lobby “If we had the money” notes Virginia Lewis (there were no concessions with popcorn or sodas). Mrs. Laird collected tickets and took “no guff” from the kids. Mr. Laird ran the projector from the upstairs projection booth (there was no balcony seating).
The show would start with a News of the World news reel, typically focusing on the ongoing World War II. When the distinctive music started, “dum-da-dum-da-dum-dum-dum,” it was time to quiet down and take your seat. There would also be cartoons shown before the feature.
Elaine Zeltner remembers: “It was a nice theater, and it was well-kept… I went regularly.” Mrs. Laird would keep track of the ages of the kids, making sure that they were paying the adult price after they aged out: “I can remember when Mrs. Laird found out. She knew I had changed my age, and she said to me, ‘You tell your mother that you owe more money here.'”
Gallup “Mirror of America” (1956-1970s)
In 1956, pollsters Dr. George Gallup and Dr. Claude Robinson purchased the old Colonial Playhouse from the Columbia Hall Association and opened “The Mirror of America,” a Gallup Poll public opinion research center, the first of its kind in America.
The center was to study the public’s reactions to “new movies, television programs, new styles, advertised products and books.” Some 475,000 people lived within a 25 mile radius of Hopewell, so the center could draw representative proportions of city, small town, and rural residents.
The atmosphere at the facility was designed to be relaxing, with “comfortable chairs, deeply-padded rugs, soft background music, a steaming cup of coffee and light refreshments.” During the building renovations, the rows of theater seats were removed, and the sloping floor was changed to a three-level floor “with attractive chairs and tables set in a modern golden decor.”
Each interview would take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, with probing questions about products advertised or shows seen. The center reached out to organizations including garden clubs and volunteer groups to attend in groups. In return, the organizations received $1 per respondent, and the respondents received light refreshments and small gifts such as ashtrays or pens. By the end of the year, nearly 5,000 people from the area had visited.
One of the approaches used in the polling was to have audiences watch potential sit-coms, which the audiences were told would be interspersed with commercials for a more realistic viewing experience. After the shows, it turned out that the researchers actually were testing the commercials.
In 1959, Dr. George Gallup also purchased the large three-story former residence of the late Dr. T. A. Pierson on the corner of East Broad Street and Blackwell Avenue. The ground floor was to be used for research offices connected to the Mirror of America research center.
By 1960 and 1961 the Mirror of America was advertising for clubs and organizations to provide volunteers. More than 250 groups had received cash payments, earning over $25,00 for their church, civic, service, and social organizations.
A 1965 article reported that after a decade in operation more than 100,000 homemakers and career women had visited the “Mirror,” to give opinions on “hundreds of products, television commercials and pilot films, package designs and political campaigns.” As a result, “crackers have been re-shaped, packages re-designed, and TV shows shelved.”
However, Gallup was concerned that it has “just about exhausted” the list of area organizations. It was then paying $1.25 per respondent, or a premium rate of $2 per male respondent because they were “more difficult to enroll.” In 1967, Gallup reported donating over $100,000 to various groups.
The building fell into disuse in the 1970s. It was still used for some special events, including a puppet show, and for a gala performance for the Gilbert & Sullivan Association, which George Gallup help sponsor and performed with in leading roles.
Local resident Tom Reeder worked for the Gallups in the 1970s, and reports that by the late 1970s the Gallup organization was using the building to store large quantities of boxes of computer punch cards that had been used to record the results of completed surveys.
Movies at the “Hopewell Theater” – 1973
Movies returned to Hopewell In 1973 when Mike and Vicki Mokriski rented the building in order to open the “Hopewell Theater” there to show old movies, plus matinees for children.
The grand opening was the weekend of November 9, 1973. The Friday and Saturday evening shows at 8 pm were $1.50, featuring the Maltese Falcon (1941) with Humphrey Bogert. The Saturday and Sunday children’s matinees at 1 pm were $1.00, showing Robin Hood (1938) with Errol Flynn.
Vicki Mokriski reports that opening night drew huge crowds, but they were unable to continue to draw enough people, and so had to close after a couple of years. “The matinees were good babysitters, so we used to get kids there on Saturday and Sunday. … People would be so grateful to have a place on the weekend to drop the kids off that was safe, and they could go and get a little something done without them. I know at Christmastime, people were so happy that they could run out and get some Christmas gifts that their kids wouldn’t even know they went shopping for.”
The building itself was ” spartan” when they started using it, but in good shape. The lobby was empty, with only a small half round counter by the stairway on the left side. The theater had round wicker tables, with four chairs at each table. Upstairs above the lobby were the bathrooms and offices, and Mike Mokriski also acquired the movie projector to install there.
Preparing the theater for movies involved removing the tables, lining up the chairs in rows, and “some fix up and some painting.” The counter in the lobby was used as the concession stand, with the popcorn machine, rack of candies, little refrigerator for cold sodas, and coffee machine. It also had a working sink in the counter.
Mike Mokriski ordered the films, which then arrived by mail to the theater. They showed “mostly old time movies,” including Westerns and mysteries, and Hawaii (1966), which was “the most recent movie that we ever showed there.” There also were “lots” of Marx Brothers films. “The Marx Brothers always had everybody laughing. I mean, unless you really see them, you just do not realize how really funny they were.”
Vicki Mokriski concludes “There’s one great little story, but I don’t know how appropriate it is to tell it. But we had one friend with a great big dog, and she used to bring that dog every Sunday when the movies were all over and let it go in and clean up all the popcorn. But I don’t know how sanitary a tale that is, although the statute of limitations is over, right? But that was always fun to watch, and the dog was so happy. Its tail would start wagging the minute it came through the doors. I think because it remembered what was waiting for it in the theater part. All the spilled popcorn from the little kids.”
Off-Broadstreet Theatre (1984-2016)
In 1984, Bob and Julie Thick launched the Off-Broadstreet Theatre on Greenwood Avenue, performing live theater plus children’s shows. They originally leased the building from Gallup, and then purchased the property in 1997.
Julie Thick reports that when they moved into the building, there were “tons and tons of telephone wires going into the building, and it had big peacock wicker chairs throughout the auditorium.” In order to convert the building from movies to shows the Thicks built the stage in the front of the auditorium section, and converted the projection booth on the second floor of the front lobby into a lighting booth.
The second floor above the lobby had the bathrooms, an office, and a room for actors at the end of the hall. The auditorium section of the building also had a second floor attic, where the Thicks added safer flooring, and then used the space to store costumes and props. There also was backstage space and lofts that actors could use to change costumes.
The resulting theater auditorium area included 50 tables that seated some 190 people. The original plan was to be a dinner theater, but audiences preferred the lower cost of a dessert theater, with dessert and beverages served an hour before curtain.
The Children’s Classic Series was designed especially for young children, ages 2 1/2 to 7 years old. It provided familiar stories and fairy tales played out by adult actors. Participation in songs and games led by the characters also kept the children involved and entertained. Performances were generally Friday and Saturday mornings.
Producing Shows
Bob Thick had an extensive professional singing background. He was the artistic director, directing most of the shows and the children’s series, building the sets, and sometimes also performing. Julie Thick was a gymnast and dancer. She was business manager, marketing director, and house manager on show nights. She also was in charge of choreography and costumes, created the dessert menu, and helped Bob choose the shows by reading hundreds of scripts every six months.
When they started in 1984, the Thicks had 34 subscribers for the first five-show series, with productions running for four or five weekends. In 2004, after 20 years, they had performed 168 productions, and had than 1,000 subscribers, with shows playing for six and seven weekends. Tickets, including dessert and the show, were $22.50 for Friday and Sunday, $24 Saturday, and $21 senior-citizen rate on Sunday.
As of their 30th year in 2014, the Thicks had produced 239 plays. They had some 700 season subscribers, with the core age 50 and above. They presented musicals, comedies and dramas, although the audience tastes had changed from musical revues to book musicals with more of a story.
“We had a town that was incredibly supportive,” says Julie Thick. “I remember early on we needed a set of kitchen cabinets and we went to the two big hot spots in town. We went to the post office and said something to them, and we went to the drug store and said something to them. And the next day I had two full sets of cabinets sitting in our side yard. Franco’s Pizza, which was Vincenzo’s Pizza when we first arrived, would stay open on our closing nights because we would buy 12 or 14 pies. The fire department would come over occasionally, especially in the beginning the basement used to flood. They would come pump it out for us. They were wonderful. The doctor’s office in town would make appointments for us if we needed something: an actor that had a sore ankle or had lost their voice, whatever.”
The Thicks sold the property to the Hopewell Theater group in 2013 , but the Off-Broadstreet Theatre continued to hold performances there until it closed at the end of 2016.
Hopewell Theatre (2017-2024)
The Hopewell Theater opened in September 2017 as an indie arts venue with a 180-seat theater. It presented live music performances, comedy, talks, and varied films, including first-run independent films and films for families.
The new owners were Jon McConaughy, Liza Morehouse, and Mitchel Skolnick, who partnered with Skolnick and Sara Scully as the production company to manage the facility. They purchased the property from the Thicks in 2013, who then continued to operate the Off-Broadstreet Theatre there until the end of 2016.
Interior demolition for the Hopewell Theater began at the end of April 2015. Over the next two years, the interior was gutted and the heating and plumbing were updated, adding two accessible bathrooms on the first floor and a prep kitchen. On the exterior, the lobby entrance was moved to the center of the front, with two doors replacing the three windows.
The entry area added a ticket booth, serving bar, and catering space. Upstairs, a mezzanine balcony provided more seating overlooking the main floor, with two event spaces and a “cigar room” with a ventilation system. The theater itself had a mix of seating, including tables and chairs as well as three rows of permanent theater-style seating and seating along the sides.
However, the Hopewell Theater was shut down in March 2020 by the New Jersey COVID restrictions, and was only able to begin reopening with limitations in September 2021. The Theater finally announced in February 2024 that it was closing permanently: “Rising costs and the inability to obtain a liquor license – a key income source for live venues – have contributed to our decision.”
== View the full History Brief report on the Hopewell Theaters (PDF) ==
See the full brief for additional references. Thanks especially to the contributors who kindly provided information and materials, including:
- Interviews: Virginia Lewis, Elaine Zeltner, Vicki Mokriski, Tom Reeder
- Richard Anderson
- Websites: HopewellTheater.com, Off-Broadstreet.com
Please contact us if you have additional materials on these theaters or other Hopewell history – photos, documents, artifacts – that we can preserve and share.
