From Movie House to Theatre

By contrast, the history of an abandoned movie theatre that became the home of the Wayside Theatre is not quite as colorful.  Records dating to 1797 show that a store and tavern once stood where the Theatre is located.  In the late 1800s, the Danner Hotel, also called the “old Hotel,” occupied one portion of the property, the other half was called the Storehouse.  From 1906, the building was rented to a variety of tenants: housing the Town Hall and jail, a general store, and other businesses until destroyed by fire in 1941 (Jones, G. from “The First Tavern.” Undated.) 

Records show that the former building had been divided into three businesses:  Little & Larrick’s Store managed by Dorothy Larrick and Arthur Tevault; a restaurant belonging to Ed Goode, and another store owned by Ed Sperry.  After the 1941 fire, the lot remained empty until 1944, when the property was purchased by Herschel C. Borden, who erected a new building on the site, feeling that a movie theatre would be a good addition for the population of Middletown.  The Bordon-Lee Theatre operated as the Middletown Movie Theatre from 1946 until 1961, when movies were no longer shown in this space. (National Registry …. 8 Nov. 2002). After the completion of the new building, Borden “lived in an apartment on the second floor for several years” (Robbins. “Little Dinosaur ….”TWS. 15 Feb. 1986). 

This new structure was also divided into three sections:  a movie theatre, a pharmacy, and a store that was managed by J. C. Borden.  The second floor housed an apartment, located in the back portion of the building, that would later be used as theatre rehearsal space and, even later, as the Theatre’s costume shop.  Beyond this area was a porch with steps leading down to the ground, where a paint-deck was located when the building had been transformed into a theatre.  The front part of the second floor was the location of the law office for Bob O’Neil, and later became an apartment for a family of three.  In later years, this section was altered and served as the Theatre’s administrative offices.  From 1959 – 1962, the ground floor space that had been the pharmacy became the home of Middletown’s town government, including the police department (Savaiano. Interview. 1 Sept. 2009). 

The basement area of the building also went through various transformations.  Prior to the time of the Theatre, one section was a barber shop, complete with a barber pole that hung outside the door.  Some people recall a ‘betting parlor’ located here, “where not quite legal wagers were placed … on the Races … that were run at nearby Charles Town, West Virginia” (Lickson.  The Lure and Lore …).  Others recall a Winchester lady, usually drunk, who rented a section of the basement for a beauty shop until she disappeared in 1962.  Each of these separate areas in the basement had outside entrances that opened on to Second Street.  When the Theatre took over the building, the first door of the basement served as the entrance to the costume shop, the second door was for prop storage, and the third door was for storage of scenery.  Due to the lack of adequate storage space, some scenery was later stored in buildings located outside of Middletown, where one of these buildings had been “a chicken coop that had never been cleaned out!” (Stern. Interview. 7 Feb. 2011).

Joe Dwyer purchased the building in 1959, and is said to have sold the theatre seats, as well as all the projection equipment for viewing films, to various movie theatres in the area.  An undated notice states that when The Opera House in Berryville, formerly known as Pitts Clarco Theatre, was undergoing a remodeling, the old seats and projectors were replaced by newer seats and projectors purchased a few years earlier from the Wayside (Movie) Theater in Middletown (“Out of the Past.”  TWS.  22 July 2013).  The installation of the seats into the Berryville space would have taken place around 1961 or 1962, when the Middletown theatre was closed and before Bernstein purchased it.

Some sources erroneously state that movies were shown in the Middletown building until 1962, but records indicate this was not the case.  Dwyer remained the owner of the building until Bernstein purchased it on 22 February, 1962. 

Two small buildings were located at the rear of the Theatre.  The red, concrete-block structure had been a dry-cleaning establishment. Those who had worked at Wayside in the early years, will recall this building as the scene shop. The other structure behind the theatre was a tiny frame building, nick-named The Love Shack.  This small structure had an interesting history as it served at one time as a residence for staff and actors, but later became a storage place for scenery.  Both of these structures were torn down in 2005 when the Theatre’s ill-fated expansion campaign was begun.