Shea Theater Group brought cinema to the region
The Shea Theater Group owned several Ohio theaters
into the 1960s and 1970s including Dover’s Bexley Theater.
During the 2023 Christmas season, local artist Christy Bloom introduced the latest card in her series of popular original art Christmas cards featuring scenes of historic buildings, themes and events.
This year’s card shows a winter scene of New Philadelphia’s West High Avenue, including the landmark Quaker Theater, as one is looking east toward the square and the Tuscarawas County Courthouse. The back of the card includes a history of the Quaker, written by Dover Public Library local history librarian Kim Jurkovic, and an excerpt from a 2015 Canton Repository article featuring the theater’s recent restoration.
According to an entry for the Quaker from the Cinema Treasures website, the theater, located at 158 W. High Ave. in New Philadelphia, was designed with an Art Moderne style facade by Columbus-based architect Harry C. Holbrook and opened in 1940.
Its original Art Deco panels and glass block were architectural highlights and could seat 748 people. The original Quaker also had a small stage area. It was originally developed and owned by the New York-based Shea Theater Group.
Holbrook also was commissioned by Shea to redesign their other longtime leased theater venue in New Philadelphia — the Union Opera House, located at 133 Ashwood Lane NE, next to the Reeves Hotel and originally opened in 1897.
Shea management reopened the Union on April 9, 1937, and operated it concurrently after the Quaker was opened until 1957 when its 20-year lease ended. At that time the Reeves Realty decided to demolish the Union to create a parking lot for the Reeves Hotel. The Reeves Hotel would be demolished in 1969.
Maurice A. Shea, also known by the nickname “Mott,” was born in 1880 and at one time managed performers Will Rogers, Elsie Janis, and Vernon and Irene Castle. When Shea died in 1940, members of the Shea family including daughter Dorothy, son Tom and others proceeded to build a network of 40 movie theaters in New England, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The Shea Theater Group owned several Ohio theaters into the 1960s and 1970s including Dover’s Bexley Theater and the Shea Cinema in New Philadelphia’s Nichols Plaza.
Designed by Canton’s J. Kerr Giffin, who also designed the Shady Hollow Country Club, in Spanish Moorish style and built in 1930, the Bexley — located at 183 W. Third St. in Dover — was slightly larger than the Quaker with a 950-seat capacity and had no balcony.
The theater’s interior featured a sizable full stage with floor and projection lights. The Bexley also operated two carbon arc projectors, essential in early film projection and the launch of Technicolor in 1935, and was later sold to the Pittsburgh-based Ohio Theaters Group. The Bexley closed suddenly in 1982.
Of later vintage, the 648-seat Shea Cinema opened July 22, 1970, on the northeast side of Nichols Plaza at Bowers Avenue and Wabash Avenue NW in New Philadelphia, which also included Nichols Discount City and other businesses such as the Be Lovey Hair Salon, operated by Ruth Ann Cheslock.
Nichols Discount City was a regional retail discount chain in the Northeast, founded in 1938 by S.E. Nichols as a variety store chain in and around New York City. Nichols opened the first Nichols Discount City store in 1960 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The first film shown at Shea Cinema was “Airport.” Shea Cinema was later renamed Cinema Center III and reopened March 4, 1977. It would operate until 1991 when the Hoyts Cinema chain bought it and the Quaker to eliminate competition for the recently opened New Towne Cinema 8 in New Towne Mall in fall 1990.
Regal Cinemas purchased the New Towne Cinema 8 in New Towne Mall in 1998. Dolby sound was first added in 1999. The theater closed March 25, 2013.