Princeton Garden Theatre
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The Princeton Garden Theatre is a historic
movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...
on Nassau Street in
Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
. Owned by
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
, it is operated by Renew Theaters, a non-profit which manages golden-age movie theaters. The theater shows first run movies of high artistic quality as well as classic and foreign language films, and Saturday kids' matinees. The Garden live broadcasts performances from the
Royal National Theatre The Royal National Theatre in London, commonly known as the National Theatre (NT), is one of the United Kingdom's three most prominent publicly funded performing arts venues, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal Opera House. I ...
and host talks and lectures from filmmakers including
Terrence Malick Terrence Frederick Malick (born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include '' Days of Heaven'' (1978), '' The Thin Red Line'' (1998), for which he received Academy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenp ...
and
Peter Saraf Peter Saraf is an American film producer whose feature film credits include '' Adaptation'' (2002), '' Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), ''Our Idiot Brother'' (2011), and ''The Kings of Summer'' (2013). In 2004, he co-founded the film production co ...
. In March 2017 the Garden was named New Jersey's best movie theater by NJ.com. It offers screenings for a number of area film festivals. In addition to walk-up ticket sales and concessions, the Garden Theatre relies on a core of members in order to meet its operating costs. Garden Theatre Members subscribe once per year with tax-deductible donations of various amounts and receive discounted admissions for all screenings. The Garden Theatre runs classic films all summer as part of its Hollywood Summer Nights series. Its yearly screenings of ''Jaws'' and ''Casablanca'' are always well-attended.


History


Early plans

The original impetus for the Garden Theatre came from a desire to improve the quality of performing spaces in the town. As early as 1909, a proposal was made to build a new home for the
Princeton Triangle Club The Princeton Triangle Club is a theater troupe at Princeton University. Founded in 1891, it is one of the oldest collegiate theater troupes in the United States. Triangle premieres an original student-written musical every year, and then takes ...
which performed in a structure on campus called the Casino considered to have poor acoustics. Alexander Hall was thought to have an awkward stage and to be too large for smaller gatherings. In 1914, Professor Donald Clive Stuart, an advocate of the Little Theatre Movement, proposed a new facility similar in size to the Princess Theatre in New York which would also be suitable for motion pictures drawn from the Rialto Theatre.


Construction

A more concrete plan took form in 1919 with the creation of the Princeton Theater Company. The company secured the site at the corner of Nassau Street and Vandeventer Avenue adjacent to and behind Bainbridge House, a historic structure that had served as the British headquarters during the Revolutionary War
Battle of Princeton The Battle of Princeton was a battle of the American Revolutionary War, fought near Princeton, New Jersey on January 3, 1777, and ending in a small victory for the Colonials. General Lord Cornwallis had left 1,400 British troops under the comman ...
. The theater took its name from the rose garden that once stood beside the house. The original plans, while expecting that moving pictures would be the chief attraction, called for the construction of a sizable stage to allow for live theater. With the remaining live theater spaces in Trenton being converted to movie theaters it was expected that the Garden would provide a space for openings of shows by New York theater companies. As construction progressed it was decided to drop plans for a stage, while allowing for the possibility that one would be added in future, and restrict the Garden to cinema and the occasional lecture. As completed in 1920 the theater cost $60,000, including the organ, and had 1000 seats, 780 in the orchestra and 220 in the gallery which also had a number of boxes. With the garden strictly a movie theater, the desire for a new space for live performances in Princeton was ultimately fulfilled with the opening of
McCarter Theatre McCarter Theatre Center is a not-for-profit, professional company on the campus of Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey. The institution is currently led by Artistic Director Sarah Rasmussen and Managing Director Michael S. Rosenberg. ...
in 1930. While it is sometimes claimed that the Garden was initially home to the Princeton Triangle Club that was only a proposed use during early planning and never came to pass.


Early decades

left, Thomas Meighan, star of ''Civilian Clothes'', the first movie to play at the Garden">Civilian_Clothes.html" ;"title="Thomas Meighan, star of ''Civilian Clothes">Thomas Meighan, star of ''Civilian Clothes'', the first movie to play at the Garden The Garden opened on September 20, 1920, with a showing of ''Civilian Clothes'', a silent film, silent comedy starring Thomas Meighan. The movie was accompanied by a live orchestra and palms and ferns were arranged on the stage.


References

{{Princeton, New Jersey, state=collapsed Cinemas and movie theaters in New Jersey Theatres completed in 1920 1920 establishments in New Jersey Buildings and structures in Princeton, New Jersey