MDC's Tower Theater, is one of Miami's oldest cultural landmarks. When it opened in December 1926, it was the finest state-of-the-art theater in the South. It is located on SW Eighth Street and Fifteenth Avenue in
Miami, Florida
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
.
History
Robdendon Corporation opened this movie theatre to the public as a
Wometco first-run-house in December 1926. On October 3, 1931, after extensive remodeling under the leadership of
Robert Law Weed
Robert Law Weed (1897–1961) was an architect from Miami, Florida. He designed many Modernist buildings in Miami and abroad.
Some of his projects
* Florida Tropical House, built for the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition during the 1933 World's Fair ...
, the theatre re-opened its doors. The exterior was developed in an
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...
style with a prominent 40-foot steel tower that quickly became a neighborhood landmark. The Theater was now a member of Wolfson-Meyer Theatrical Enterprises of Miami.
During the late fifties and throughout the sixties, large numbers of Cuban refugees fled to Miami. The area surrounding S.W. Eighth Street - "Calle Ocho" - became a place of new beginnings. For many Cuban families, films at MDC's Tower Theater were an introduction to American culture in addition to pure entertainment. Soon MDC's Tower Theater altered its programming to include English-language films with Spanish subtitles, and eventually Spanish-language films. However, after almost sixty years of operation, MDC's Tower Theater was closed to the public in 1984.
Following another remodeling in 2002, the Theater was turned over to
Miami Dade College
Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College S ...
. Now under the auspices of
Miami Film Festival.
In 2011,
USA Today
''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgi ...
declared MDC's Tower Theater "one of the 10 great places to see a movie in splendor" in the newspaper's round-up of the best old-fashioned movie palaces in America.
[http://travel.usatoday.com/destinations/10great/story/2011-09-29/10-great-places-to-see-a-movie-in-splendor/50611456/1]
References
;Notes
;Bibliography
{{coord, 25, 45, 56.42, N, 80, 13, 10.07, W, scale:20000_region:US, display=title
Buildings and structures in Miami
Art Deco architecture in Florida
Theatres completed in 1926
1926 establishments in Florida