11/11/2025
As kids, going to the movies was special. We had a local theatre. A lovely single screen historical place built in 1892 (or 1891, depending on the source) as an opera/playhouse. A 1927 renovation enlarged and modernized it, allowing it to embrace the huge and exciting market of moving pictures in addition to vaudeville and plays... Years passed, attendance declined, and the theatre closed, reopened, and then slowly started falling apart. It was around this era that we patronized it as often as funds allowed. These visits were preceded by a trip to the drugstore to buy our favorite candies (Mine were Sno-caps, thank you very much!) to cheekily stash in our mom's large purse. Movie theater prices certainly add up when carting around triplets! Anyway, the Coyle closed for good in 1999. Two years after our mom died. Efforts were made to save it, but in the end, the damage was too great. It was torn down in 2019. We mourned it and its connection to our youth, and the loved ones now absent. When the beautiful art deco facade came down, the original stained glass, displaying the name of the theatre, but built over in the 1920s, was revealed for the first time in nearly a century. I'm not even sure anyone knew it was still under there, as the demolition process punched a hole straight through it. The damaged windows (there is a transom as well, see earlier post) were removed and put into storage. And last year, after some initial repairs, we were given the opportunity to work on them. To be able to have a hand in protecting these for the future, scrubbing off more than a century of grime and dust, mending the broken pieces of an unknown witness to whole generations of people coming and going, as well as a mother with her three kids, at least one of whom is terribly anxious that she'll be caught with her chocolate contraband, has been amazing. We're full of warm, warm gratitude. 🖤
TLDR? We got to work on the Coyle Theatre windows!!
