Community Corner

Plaza Theatre Demolition Continues

Walls off, interior of abandoned theatre being picked apart.

All of the exterior walls of East Patchogue’s Plaza Theatre have been removed as of Friday in the to demolish the former cinema.

The demolition held Tuesday at the intersection of E. Main Street and Grove Avenue.

“Our community will no longer have to look at this eyesore,” Marita Morello, president of Focus East Patchogue, said at Tuesday’s ceremony.

Morello brought a sledgehammer with her, saying that it had been her dream for 25 years to use the hammer to knock down the abandoned theatre. The cinemas was last in operation in the early 1980s.

“That building has so many happy and sad memories,” Morello said.

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy said that the last film he saw in the theatre was E.T. Former Patchogue resident Jef Poskanzer told Patch through Twitter that he remembers seeing Thunderball in 1965 at Plaza.

The road to knock the theatre down was indeed a long one.

Brookhaven Town had the theatre condemned and ownership transferred through a 18-month long process that began in Oct. 2009 and completed in March 2011.

The former owner, East Main Realty Corp. reportedly rejected a $1.2 million offer from Brookhaven Town before the proceedings began.

Many politicians were cited during the ceremony as working on the project, including Suffolk County Legislator Jack Eddington, Brookhaven Town Councilman Tim Mazzei and former State Senator Brian Foley.

Approximately 100 people attended the event, and watched as a construction crew began tearing down two of the walls of the theatre.

Plans for what will replace the theatre are yet to be made. Town officials have previously said that they hope to redevelop the half acre of property as part of other projects in the East Main Street corridor.

Check the photos for highlights of where the demolition of the Plaza Theatre currently stands. Have your own photos? Upload them to this article or email them to michael@patch.com.


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