Dorchester Illustration of the Day no. 2003
Scan of advertisement for Winthrop Hall in Dorchester Woman’s Club Cook-Book 1897.
Winthrop Hall was located at 570-572 Columbia Road where the Citizens Bank building is located today. In the scan the stone on the front of the building indicates that the building was constructed in 1895.
The website cinematreasures.org says there was a theater in the building: Winthrop Hall was located in Uphams Corner, a section of the Dorchester area of Boston (south of downtown). It was a meeting hall which was converted to a theater in the 1890’s and later became a movie house. It was located in a distinctive brick building about 5 stories high, with a gable roof and a corner tower. The theater may have been upstairs on the second floor. It is unclear if this operation survived into the sound era.
and a comment on that site: the Winthrop Hall Theater was operating with vaudeville and movies, in a building 5-plus stories high. Then in 1918, the Strand opened across the street. The “Winnie” remained open. Then, by 1930, the building was partially torn down and a 2-story bank went into the space. Then in 1941, a different theater, the Uphams Theater, opened in a long one-story block.
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