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Athens Theaters, Incorporated1 theater operating company — motion pictures
Site Selection — Survey to Determine Profitable Theater Location. A corporation owning and operating motion picture theaters desired to locate a theater in a New England mill city. A survey of the population of the town, the industries of the community, the types of competition, and the costs of desirable real estate enabled the company to select a profitable location. The theater paid for itself in less than three years.
(1913)
In 1913 the Athens Theaters, Incorporated, of Boston, Massachusetts, considered the advisability of erecting a new theater in Mill town,1 Massachusetts. At that time the corporation owned and operated five theaters, two in the city of Boston and three in near-by cities, with an average seating capacity of 1,850. It had been more than ordinarily successful in providing popular motion picture entertainment.
An investigation of Milltown as a location for a theater disclosed the following facts. The city had a population of about 110,000. The population had increased 25% in each of two 10year periods. The city extended for four miles along a main street which had one principal business center and two other less important shopping centers evidently in process of formation. The chief industry of the city was the manufacture of fine cotton goods, in which it occupied a commanding position; the mills had paid substantial dividends over a long period.
The housing conditions in Milltown were poor. Before the rise of the cotton industry Milltown had developed as a seaport. As was common in older New England seaports, the land was divided into very small parcels and the houses were small. In the interval between the shipping prosperity and the cotton mill development, much of the property had run down and little new housing of respectable character had been provided. Few people of wealth remained in the city, the major part of the population
1 Fictitious name.
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