Where Reader Meets Seminole Theatre/Roaring 20's thru the 0000's/K.Teresa Harris.page3

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Seminole Theatre

The Roaring 20's

..Going forward into the OOO's*..

K.Teresa Harris..page3

In March 1940, a fire nearly devastated the Seminole Theater. An eyewitness in South Miami still remembers seeing the flames that night. Rehabilitation of the theater began right away under the leadership of architect Roy Abraham Benjamin, who designed over 200 movie houses during his lifetime. Benjamin incorporated elements of art deco into the exterior theater design.

Orval M. Irwin, custodian of the Seminole Theater prior to the fire, also worked on the construction crew during the rennovation. Irwin remembers that the roof of the theater had fallen in and burned, leaving mostly the wooden balcony structure in front of the projection booth and the framework of the three apartments incorporated in the high frame front wall.

Read Orval's Eye witness account on Seminole

The cost of the 1940 restoration was approximately $50,000. This was a lot of money at the time, considering a loaf of bread cost 10 cents and wages were $2.00 per day for laborers, $6.00 per day for carpenters, and $8.00 per day for masons.

By August 1940, the Seminole was ready to open again. Still the only indoor cinema from the Upper Keys to South Miami, the Seminole Theater continued as the center of social and cultural life in the region. The popularity of the theatre could also be attributed to the tremendous growth of the Homestead community around the time of World War II. The theater also presented live musical performances and live entertainment, including the annual Fruit Festival Queen pageant and Betty Crocker cooking demonstrations.

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