Barberton, Lake Theater
Historic Theaters
CASE Studies
Current Name of Theater: Lake Theater
Current Type: Cinema
Seats: 1,000
Website: lake8movies.com
Historic Names of Theater: The Lake
Address: 588 W Tuscarawas Ave, Barberton, OH 44203
Phone: (330) 753-5253
Year Built / Style: 1938 / Art Moderne
Original Architect:
Original Cost:
Listed on National Register: yes – 90000755
History of Theater:
The Lake Theatre is interesting as it was built as one of the very few privately funded projects in Barberton during the Great Depression. The Lake Theatre, or simply The Lake as it was called, was constructed and opened in 1938 in the then new, Art Moderne style of architecture. The complex was built by downtown Barberton business men Frank Gaethke and Harold Makinson. Seating originally was about 900 seats.
The Lake Theatre building was unique, as it was built not only as a theatre but also as an entertainment and retail center. In addition to the theatre the building housed a downstairs bowling alley and billiard parlor as well as a restaurant, peanut vendor, and barbershop on the first floor. It’s most unique feature was the huge well in the basement that pumped ice cold water through coils to help the Westinghouse air conditioning to cool the air in the summer. The water was then returned to the ground with another well drilled deep into the salt mines below the surface.
The original Lake Theatre marquee was done in gold and blue neon with over 300 flashing light bulbs lighting up the front of the theatre. The glass blocks above the marquee were illuminated from the inside with revolving color wheels giving the exterior of the theatre a rainbow of continually changing colors. The marquee’s neon is the State of Ohio’s colors, blue and gold. Another interesting original feature on the inside of the theatre was the painting of eight large murals each executed by noted Barberton artist Wilson Heller, who had graduated from the Cleveland School of Art.
The flashy new Lake Theatre, with its original seating for 1000 persons, premiered by invitation only on May 6, 1938 with the showing of “Sergeant Murphy” staring Ronald Regan and Mary Maguire. An entire series of photos of the new theatre was. commissioned by the theatre owners showing every feature of the new modern theatre on opening night..
The Lake must have been the as-yet-nameless theater listed as being under construction at Barberton in the October 9, 1937, issue of Boxoffice Magazine. Owners were named as F.N. Gaethke and Harold Makinson (though Boxoffice misspelled his name as Makeson. Many other issues give the spelling Makison.). Makinson was Barberton’s theater magnate in those days. The June 3, 1939, issue of Boxoffice said that H. Makinson owned the Lake, Park, and Lyric Theatres in Barberton. In 1940 he bought the town’s other house, the Pastime Theatre. The May 25 issue of Boxoffice that year noted that Makinson then owned and operated all the theaters in Barberton. The October 11, 1947, issue of Boxoffice lists four Barberton Theatres and two in Canton, all operated by Makinson and Gaethke, involved in a lawsuit filed by several major movie distributors. The Barberton theaters listed were the Park, Lake, Lyric, and Pastime. By that time, the Pastime had already been closed and converted to retail space, according to the January 25 issue of Boxoffice that year. We are unable to discover if the Lyric was still in operation at that time, but Boxoffice contains no later mentions of it that we can find.
After 1947 we find no mentions of Makinson or Gaethke in Boxoffice, but quite a few of Vincent Lauter, operator of the West Theatre and the Magic City Drive-In (opened 1950) who, apparently, became Barberton’s new theater magnate.From the 1940’s into the 1970’s many boys and girls from Barberton remember the Lake Theatre fondly, as free Saturday passes were made available by the theatre’s owners to the Barberton AAA. These passes which were good at the Park Theatre or the Lake Theatre were distributed by the Barberton AAA to our local elementary schools as rewards for participation in the School Safety Patrol program. Although each free pass was to be exchanged for a free ticket at the ticket booth, if you were lucky enough when gaining admission, the ticket seller sometimes “conveniently forgot” to collect your free pass and you could reuse the same pass the next week.
The Lake Theatre would remain open and a viable part of downtown Barberton until April of 1980. The last movie playing on the big screen was, “And Justice for All” starring Al Pacino, Jack Warden, and John Forsythe. This would have seemed to have been the end of the road for the Lake Theatre which would remain closed for over fourteen years.
Cost of Rehabilitation:
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Renovation Story:
It closed in the 1980’s with many others, but the city purchased the property and leased it to a company in Cleveland who turned it into a multiplex by adding to the building. It’s main competition was the Park Theatre across the street who also ran second-run features. The Park is now a children’s theatre.
In the early 1990’s the Lake Theatre was restored, modernized and expanded reopening as the Lake Cinema 8, on May 11, 1994.
Today the “Lake 8 Movies” remains a lynchpin of downtown Barberton’s redevelopment efforts, proving the viability of adaptive reuse of historic architecture in Barberton.
Information furnished by the Barberton Historical Society.
