Historic Warwick Blog: Oakland Theatre

Monday, April 9, 2012

Oakland Theatre

To call attention to the upcoming Summer Silent Film Festival that is planned for Sunday and Monday, July 29 and 30 at the A.W. Buckbee Center the following is reminiscent of Warwick's own silent film past. The Oakland Theatre served as not only a venue for silent films, but vaudeville, radio broadcasts, opera, and vivic fundraisers, to name a few.

The Warwick Valley Dispatch, November 26, 1913
Oakland Theatre
Work on Smith’s Opera House is Progressing Finely

Contractor A.C. Altman of Goshen is pushing along rapidly the construction of the “Oakland Avenue,” for Harry P. Smith, which is the first invasion of Oakland avenue by business enterprise in the history of the village. That it will be an ornate structure and a credit to the street and village is the belief of all familiar with the plans and purposes of the owner.

Strength and safety are the two essentials of its construction. The sidewalls are of hollow tile, cemented together. Substantial brick piers, firmly bedded, support the steel eye-beam girders that carry the weight of the roof. The exterior front will be of stucco, with red brick trim. The exterior side walls will be of stucco. The auditorium will be 45 x 100 feet; with a 25 foot ceiling. In front there will be a lobby, 10 x 20 feet, with two entrances and exits, each six feet wide; additional exits, one on each side, six feet wide, and a separate entrance and exit from the stage in the rear, will make it possible to empty the house in a few seconds.

There will be about 525 individual seats in the main auditorium and the gallery over the lobby and extending across the front corners of the building, will seat about 125 more, - all individual chairs. Several windows on each side, will afford light and air, the windows being well up from the floor level; and a large ventilator will be put in the roof.

On each side of the front lobby ladies and gentlemen’s check and cloak rooms will be provided. The stage will be 28 feet front and 20 feet deep, with commodious and handy dressing rooms on either side, fitted with modern conveniences.

A fire-proof wall will divide the auditorium from the stage.. Mr. Smith has yet decided as to the drop curtain. A complete outfit of stock scenery and stage apparatus will be installed. The moving picture machine, which will be placed in the centre of the gallery will be enclosed in a fire-proof booth; everything will be in strict conformity with the fire-safety laws. The indirect lighting system will be employed, which enables late arrivals to find their seats without inconvenience during the progress of the show.

The building of this modern theatre is being watched with great interest by our citizens, and the belief is general that it is one of the events that mark the era of a greater Warwick. An ever increasing population is reasonably certain, according to all the information at hand, and the demand for entertainment is on the increase. That the present fad for the “movies” is pretty sure to be a permanent feature of our life is reasonably certain. Millions of capital are invested in the production of films all over the world; the speaking movies are not so far off either.

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At our Summer History Camp this year kids will dig up crystals that fluoresce under a special black light. The crystals were actually discovered in the area as early as the 1820s and collectors from all over the United States and Europe came to the specifically places like Amity in the Town of Warwick to find these rare specimens for their museums, universities and their private collections. One of the largest off site exhibitions of these crystals is found in the Ecoles des Mines in Paris; there are over 150 samples of minerals specifically from Amity, NY in that collection which were discovered in large in the 1830s. What is interesting to imagine is that geologist and mineralogists from the greatest institutions of higher learning were traveling by horseback and carriage to the wilds of Warwick in the 1820s and 1830s to find rocks for their cabinets of curiosities.

Wawayanda Furnace ( 19th century ) the furnace that many of us remember seeing on our trips to the New Jersey State Park actually was integral to iron ore production supplied by Warwick mines. On a recent sojourn into the woods we visited some local iron ore mines that would have supplied the mid-nineteenth century Wawayanda Furnace. Of course, these operations were supplanted by the end of the nineteenth century when places with better quality ore that were closer to cheaper forms of transportation, like water and rail shut them down.

Ken Hamilton, "Woodlands Interpreter", will present the early 18th century life of Algonquin-speaking people, like the Minsi people of the Lenape tribe, of what was later named by Benjamin Aske as "Warwick." Here we see a trade camp with historially accurate artifact reproductions produced by Mr. Hamilton by hand; he an accomplished leatherworker, blacksmith and silversmith. As an "historical artifact artist", Mr. Hamilton produces props used in many living history scenarios and museums throughout the country. He will share some of his knowledge with campers at the Summer History Camp 2012. See further details.