Known today as the Ulster Performing Arts Center, the Broadway Theatre opened in 1927 as a movie palace and vaudeville house designed by the famed New York City architect Douglas P. Hall. Purchased in 1947 by the Walter Reade Organization, the Broadway soon became a first-run movie house. A 1953 facelift called for removal of the grand chandelier, replacement of the 1927 marquee and blade sign with an imposing neoclassical portico, and a new name: the Community Theater.
But by 1977, the flight of business and entertainment from downtown centers to suburban malls caused Walter Reade to close …