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HomeMovie TheatersPlaza Theatre

Plaza Theatre - Detroit MI

Address: 11641 E Jefferson
City: Detroit
State: MI
Zip: 48214
County: Wayne
Open: 1913
Capacity:
Owner History:
Theater Type: Neighborhood House
Number of visits to this page: 4128
General Information:

The Plaza Theatre opened in 1913 with seating listed at 750. The theatre was owned/operated by Co-Op Theatres of Michigan and later by Associated Theatres. The architectural firm for the theatre was Stahl, Kinsey and Chapman. The Plaza Theatre closed in 1954 and has since been demolished. There is a vacant lot where the theatre once stood.

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Info Updates:
4/19/2011 - John A.
The theater closed long before my time,but i only lived a few blocks away on beniteau st. between kercheal & jefferson at the time, i remember my friend greg and i, maybe around the age of 12 or13 ? We found a way inside the closed down decaying theater and while exploring the upper balcony left side,i saw just above the door a really nice unbroken original stained glass exit 6 sign and it seem to be almost untouched and somewhat protected from the poor environment around it and harsh elements of time it's self. I just had to save it from the possibility of being lost & forgotten forever when the theater was to be demolished sometime later in the near furture I felt the fixture was a part of detroit's past movie house history and it should be protected,not forgotten or destroyed along with the rest of that great old detriot movie theater that so many people enjoyed.
7/29/2008 - JIM DRISCOLL
The Plaza Theater was the ultimate location for seeing all the great B-Westerns of film lore....Gene & Roy, Johnny Mack Brown, Hoppy, Rex & Tex, Allan Rocky Lane....and so many more. Alas, it was a little too far to go for me as a youngster, several miles up Jefferson Av from my GPP home on Maryland Av, as well as the fact that I had to obey my mom's desire to keep me safe from harm. The theater was known to be in a "bad area", although I didn't care.

I used to ride my bike up there, just to see what was playing, as I had a hard time finding it listed in the Detroit papers. Two or three miles on a bike was a long way to go for a kid, but I made the trip, more than once. And every time, a great "shoot-'em-up" Hero was playing, sometimes more than one. I'd give anything to get on a time machine and go back to 1950 right now!

Alas, I'll have to settle for a DVD version of that oater...but it just isn't the same. Fortunately, the Time Theater, ( the poor man's Plaza) at Jefferson & Drexel had a lot of those 'B" classics, as well, and would suffice for me....14 blocks from my home, just down the street from the more expensive Cinderella Theater, 25 cents for kids in 1950. The Time was only 9 cents, with 3 features, no less, like the Plaza.

No sign of any of these ghosts of good -times- past anymore. Truly sad.
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