The theater opened on October 11, 1886 as H.C. Miner’s Newark Theatre.[1] It started as a vaudeville house managed by Hyde & Behman Amusement Co., a Brooklyn based theater Management Company. After H.C. Miner’s death in 1900, his family remained owners of the theater for several more years until it was sold in 1916 to Edward Spiegel, the owner of the Strand Theatre. [2]
The 1,772-seat theater showed plays and vaudeville performances before moving to film.
The theater was reconstructed and managed by Paramount-Publix starting in 1930, resulting in the theater being remodeled into an atmospheric style theater. After the redesign, the theater was renamed the Paramount Theatre.
The theater closed on March 31, 1986 due to an increase in insurance rates.[3]
In 2012, the RGH development group received a $52 million from the state of New Jersey to help fund the Four Corners Millennium Project. This project calls for a mixed use residential and commercial building to be built on the site of the theater. There are plans to incorporate the facade into the new building, while demolishing the auditorium.[4]
As of now in 2019, the theater sits abandoned and is rotting away.
[1] http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4603
[2] https://afterthefinalcurtain.net/2011/09/28/the-newark-paramount-theatre/
[3] https://untappedcities.com/2012/11/29/after-the-final-curtain-abandoned-theaters-of-new-jersey/
[4] http://tfpnj.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-paramount-theater.html
