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November 1924
Park Theatre Opens

The Park Theatre was built in 1924 for $100,000 by the firm William R. Walker and Son. It was a movie theatre with 988 seats (247 seats per 4 aisles) and an orchestra pit. approximately 100 ft long.

60's & 70's
The Park Saved

By 1963, the owners were seeking permission to raze the building to make way for a gas station. A neighborhood petition drive helped to stop the plan. The Park Cinema closed the following year but reopened in March 1965 under new management. The theater became a second-run movie house when it was converted into a twin cinema in 1971 and a triple cinema in 1978.

1985
Park Showing Movies to Locals
Park Theatre Inside

In 1985, the Park Theatre was a second-run movie theatre, playing popular films that audiences still craved after the first-run cinemas were done with them.

1999
The Park Changes Ownership

In 1999, Piyush Patel purchased the Park. He owned 36 companies in New England and New Jersey at the time — including a few hotels, a textile plant, and a water treatment facility. He also restored two other theaters, the Narragansett Pier Cinema and Wakefield’s Campus Cinema and put first-run movies into both historic houses. He had planned to do the same with the Park.

2001
Park Gets Extensive Renovations

New seating, sound system, and wall-coverings modernized the experience. 

May 2003 Patel announced a $1.3 million plan to transform the building’s three-theater interior into two — a dinner theater that seats about 150 patrons and an art-house theater with a capacity of about 600.

2022
The Historic Park Theatre to be Revitalized
Park Theatre Out side

Restaurant group “Dig In Dining and Entertainment” announced their plan to restore the Park Avenue space into a theater with more than 1,000 seats for dance recitals and other live performances.

There will also be a big a big screen for playing old movies, a café and comedy club, among other improvements.