Two Movie Theaters

Location: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Date Visited: July 7, 2014

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I planned on this being a weekly thing, but it kind of turned into a "whenever I get around to it" thing. What can I say? Life happens and I'm not very good at schedules. I'm still very much interested in abandoned places, I'm just horrible at planning trips to see them.

Fortunately, on one of my frequent trips to Fort Wayne, a couple of friends mentioned a couple of supposedly abandoned movie theaters in town that we could get into. Unfortunately, it turns out that these places have been locked up tight, and one even had a security system put in.

I'll be honest, it's been nearly six months since this trip, and the name of the first theater we visited has completely escaped me.

I believe it was located next to a strip mall.

Theatre 1

A door! Locked.

Peeking inside a window. Looks like most everything has been torn out.

Windows.

Around the back... or maybe it was the side.

An old security camera, maybe?

Definitely in the back now.

Oh, look, another locked door. Love the foliage, though.

More locked doors.

Stairs down to a door with no handles.

Noticing a trend here?

Boarded up.

So many doors!

But they all had one thing in common: locked.

Broken windows. They were pretty high up.

 We eventually found an unlocked door! We couldn't wait to see what was inside.

It was a bathroom.

And an electrical box. Look at all those colorful wires!

Some type of utility room?

The second one we went to was The Rialto, which later research showed me that it was actually a historical symbol with a very interesting past. While it opened in 1924 as a normal theater, it was later sold and turned into an "adult" theater. The owners were apparently sued for promoting prostitution (apparently the upper balconies had been turned into rooms for more private entertainment) among other things and the theater closed in 1989. It was purchased by The Reclamation Project in 2003, and there are currently efforts being made to restore it, so that it may open as a community center.

Rialto sign.

The front doors were right on the street, and obviously locked.

Peeking inside the window.

Loved the architecture here.

Ticket booth.

Some sort of speaker.

A truly lovely place to look at. If only it wasn't locked up and equipped with alarms.

This is what I hate about cities, from an exploring standpoint. "Abandoned" places aren't really abandoned and there is always that chance of running into an unfriendly squatter, among other things. It's much nicer to be in the middle of nowhere where something has been long forgotten.

Anyways, I admit that this post is a bit of a dud. I suppose I'm more so using it as a way of saying that I am still alive and hoping to have some better quality posts to make soon.