Category:Hippodrome Theater, Allentown, Pennsylvania

Allentown's Hippodrome Theatre was the first modern cinema on Hamilton Street. It was located at 608-610 Hamilton Street, across the street from the Zollinger-Harned department store. The building was erected in 1903 by Cyrus Kuntz for an evening newspaper called "The Item", for which the building was named. The downstairs was rented by L. B. Shelling, an Allentown grocer who moved his buisness into it in early 1904. and the Allentown Daily City Item newspaper was on the upper floors. In 1911 the Item was sold and moved to 6th and Linden Streets, the present home of Call Chronicle Newspapers, although there is no connection between the newspapers.

The Hippodrome theater first was announced in October 1911, when George W. Bennethum, the owner of the Victor theatre in Allentown purchaced the property. Bennethum also operated theatres in several other cities, including New York and Philadelphia. After about two months of remodeling the property, the theatre showed its first picture on 11 December 1911. It originally had a capacity of about 800 seats. The Hippodrome showed first run films from Hollywood studios, and had a theater organ. The films were silent, as sound films had not been invented yet, with most films costing a nickle or ten cents.

The Paramount Theater Chain purchased the theater in 1915 and began alternations to upgrade the theater adding a balcony, a snack bar and other amenities. It was again renovated in 1917 to seat 1,100 on the main floor and 250 in the balcony. The seats on the main floor were leather, considered luxurious at the time. In order to keep patrons comfortable, several large fans were built into the cieling, providing circulating air inside the auditorium. The theater chain was, at the time, part of Paramount Studios, however the chain showed films from all of the Hollywood studios at the time.

The Wilmer & Vincent chain from New York purchased the theater in 1922. Wilmer & Vincent were the owners of the Orpheum, Rialto and Colonial theaters in Allentown at the time, and this purchase gave them three cinemas and a Vaudeville stage theater (The Orpheum) in Allentown. The Hippodrome however, was also the smallest of the W&V properties (the new Rialto cinema was twice its size), and could not be adapted for Vaudeville shows as the new Colonial could, which was used both for films and stage shows. About a year after the purchase. it was decided to close the Hippodrome in 1923. The property was sold and converted to a restaurant. In 1926, Wilmer & Vincent converted the Orpheum Vaudeville house into the State Theatre, which essentially replaced the former Hippodrome as their third Allentown cinema.

This was not the end of the building being a cinema however, as the building was purchased by a Chicago group in 1935, and was reopened as the "Midway Theater". However a fire caused servere damage to the building in 1955 and the theater was subsequently closed, as it was deemed uneconomical to reopen due to the reduced audiences caused by the popularity of television.

Repairs and renovations were made after the fire and the building, by then known as the Hipp Building, became a general office building in 1957, housing a wide variety of buisnesses. In 1990 it became a rehabilitation center and halfway house, known as the Allentown Community and Corrections Center. The Center closed in August 2016 and was torn down in 2017 as part of the NIZ redevelopment. It was replaced by the new Tower 6 building.