Grande Theatre

Info Updates:

2/21/2014 - JB Allen

This building is gone. Drove by in the summer of 2013 and the site had weeds growing, apparently it was razed the year before. I was with my mom while driving by the site of the Grande. She grew up in Delray (early 1920s-WWII) and recalls a larger building behind 8024 W Jefferson (across the alley) which was part of the Grande. Her recollection was buying a ticket and candy in the building on Jeffereson and walking through to the alley. Crossing the alley, she entered a larger theater where she and her brothers watched movies. There was a building across the alley (about 2-3 times the size of 8024 Jefferson) that was razed in the 50s.

4/18/2012 - Sean Doerr

The building still exists, and is the brown one. Having been inside before the fire, there was little remaining. The original floor seating was divided with cinder blocks with the ceiling lowered. A small balcony was partially intact (no stairs to go up there).

11/9/2009 - Greg Lancaster

My grandfather, Tom Lancaster, owned the Grande Theater. The building was razed during the 1960''s. I remember my father, Don Lancaster, pointing out the empty lot to me when I was a child.

11/20/2008 - David Hoeft

This theater was built by my widowed GG Grandmother Emma( Schneider) Lancaster and my G grandfather Thomas Lancaster.

6/21/2008 - John Kocsis

The Grande Theatre (pronounced gran-dee by Delray locals) was a very comfortable and well-kept theatre during its movie days in the 1950s, when I used it as a kid in the neighborhood. Looking at pictures today, with the decayed buildings, it looks like the Grande is a long but not wide brown brick structure on the north side of the street around 8700 W. Jefferson. It has a taller "fly" structure at the back of the building, which is consistent with a theatre. The marquee is gone and the street front looks converted to perhaps a store front at some time since the 1950s. I''m doing information preservation research on demolished and closed Detroit Theatres and have included the Grande on my list. I''m not completely sure the building I identified is indeed that theatre and would appreciate any help in making a good indentification. I''m looking for old photos of the interior and exterior and will eventually contact the architect firm, if it still exists, and newspaper material to dig back into the Vaudeville days when the Grande was a stage theatre and an active part of a vibrant and successful Delray.

1/13/2004 - Cinema Treasures

The over 1800-seat Grande opened in 1909, as a legitimate theater, and later served as a vaudeville house before it was remodeled in 1921 by the firm of Kohner & Seeler and switched to movies. The theater closed in 1951.

HomeMovie TheatersGrande Theatre