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In 1965, Allard Graves sold the Lyric, a downtown movie theater in White River Junction.
He opened the North Street Theater in 1926, according to a 1965 Valley News article. Theaters are where people gather to watch the latest Hollywood movies and kids watch cartoons. But by the 1960s, the public’s relationship to movie theaters had changed.
“Television has hurt White River’s ‘movie’ in a big way,” Graves told Valley News at the time of the sale, “but the loss of the railroad business and some good payroll for the various factories that used to operate nearby have also been significantly hurt. s damage.”
The Lyric is just one of many entertainment venues that have existed in Hartford over the centuries and are part of the town’s efforts to document its performing arts history. The public will have an opportunity to learn about historian Neil Silberman and the Hartford Preservation Commission Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Hartford City Hall, 171 Bridge St., White River Junction Discovery by members of the (Hartford Preservation Commission).It can also be streamed remotely via hartford-vt.org/_T4_R24.php.
At 2 p.m. that day, people were invited to a roundtable discussion at the Town Hall to share their memories of the different shows they played in Hartford. Those interested in participating in the project but unable to attend the meetup can contact City Planner Matt Osborn at mosborn@hartford-vt.org or 802-478-1118. Participants do not need to be Hartford residents; they just need to have a memory of the Hartford event.
“It’s not your normal history prevention program that you would normally do, because there’s so much intangible stuff to this program,” said Silbermann of Coherit Associates, a Connecticut-based firm that helps communities document their histories.
Typically, historic preservation efforts focus on physical buildings, but in this case, many buildings – including the Lyric – have disappeared.
“It’s about memories. It’s about creativity,” Silbermann said. “You have to piece it together with posters, period photos and stuff like that.”
Citing JAG, Upstate Stage, Briggs Opera and JAM, Silbermann said the time frame continues today as Hartford once again becomes a rich venue for the performing arts.
Osborne said the project is being funded primarily with a certified local government grant of $9,121. As part of the grant, Hartford must provide a match of at least 40 percent by providing a combination of cash, staff and volunteer time; to increase their chances of receiving the grant, the town provided $9,187, including approximately $2,300 , and the rest came from the efforts of staff and volunteers.
The town has received substantial grants over the years, including one that funded a census of the town’s barns. This year, as members of the Historic Preservation Committee discussed projects to undertake, they became interested in documenting the town’s performing arts history.
“Members agreed that this was a neat project that was a little different than most historic preservation projects,” Osborne said.
Osborn and Silberman emphasize that while White River Junction is the town’s entertainment hub, all five villages have active and thriving performing arts spaces.
“I found it surprising that in all the other villages the grange movement had a really big impact,” Silbermann said, referring to the halls that support local farmers and serve as meeting places. There are halls in Quechee, Hartford Village, West Hartford and Wilder. “A lot of amateur music was made and drama was put on.”
One of the earliest enclaves was Freegrace Leavitt’s tavern and inn on the corner of Town Road and Kings Highway opened in 1794 (today it is a single family residence). Silbermann said Leavitt served as the town clerk, and his tavern served as the town office building until the 1820s.
“That was really the first entertainment venue,” he said.
The late 1800s became a boom time for Hartford art. In 1891, the Gates Opera House opened at the intersection of the White River in downtown.
“In a sense, the star of the show was May Gates, who conceived the Gates Block and Gates Opera House in 1890. She really gave Hartford a proper theater and actually started Book a show,” Silbermann said. That’s also when centralized booking agencies became commonplace – leading to shows becoming more common. “Whether it’s a chorus, a magician or a ventriloquist, the most outlandish acts come on trains, perform one night and then go to the next town. It’s very different from anything that’s ever happened before, it’s really homemade.”
At the turn of the 20th century, Hartford welcomed its first nickelodeon theater: Fantasyland on South Street, where residents got their first real exposure to movies.
“While people have to pay a whopping 25 or 35 cents to go to a live vaudeville show at the Gates Opera House, it’s only 5 cents to go to Dreamland,” Silberman said. The Dreamland became the Crown Cinemas, which Allard later bought. In 1952, Allard—dubbed by Silberman “the movie mogul of White River Junction”—opened the now-defunct drive-in on Mount Sykes Avenue, which is still fondly remembered .
That’s one of the reasons oral histories are crucial to the project, because they “focus on what people went through years ago and what it was like to experience a certain show or a certain place,” Osborne said.
Silbermann said the history project also reflects a change in the way cultural heritage works.
It used to focus on historical facts and a more specific timeline. While these still play a role, there is now a greater emphasis on people’s memories and the way they interpret specific time periods.
“Everyone has a different idea of how important the town’s history is. With (including) more and more voices, the story becomes richer,” Silbermann said. “Someone’s grandmother’s recipe is as valuable as a building that can be placed on the Historic Places Register.”
Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.
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