Nestled into the rolling hills north and west of Minneapolis, the City of Robbinsdale slept soundly through the first half of the twentieth century. In the years following World War II residents of the little bedroom community woke up to a building boom. During the 1940’s and 50’s Robbinsdale added over 10,000 souls. Inside the city’s three square miles, houses, schools and shopping centers appeared overnight. Robbinsdale looked a lot like Riverdale at the dawn of the Fabulous Fifties. There were drive-in’s, soda fountains and sock hops over at the high school. People still did their shopping downtown. Along West Broadway one could find Jullie’s Men’s Wear, Hackenmueller’s Meats, The Ben Franklin Five and Dime, Eva’s Clothing, three drug stores, a couple supermarkets, two lumber yards and three hardware stores. While Archie and Jughead looked over hotrods outside the Tower Garage, Betty and Veronica could catch a matinee movie at the Robin Theatre or grab a cheery coke at Mueller’s soda fountain.
The town’s first theater, the Robin opened as a silent movie house in 1926. Originally called the Crystal, the 305 seat theater was built on the backside of Mueller’s Rexall Drug. The Crystal didn’t have a snack bar, but a doorway led from the lobby to the candy counter in the adjoining drug store. In 1931, the Crystal underwent a major remodeling and reopened as the Robin Theatre. In 1938, The Robin was purchased by William and Sidney Volk’s Minnehaha Theatre Corporation.
Sydney, William and Julius Volk arrived in Minneapolis by way of Lithuania at the dawn of the Jazz Age. When the Great Depression hit they took out loans, pooled their savings and went into the movie theater business. During the 1930’s, old silent movies houses were retrofitted for sound and new theaters opened all over the Twin Cities. The Volks business model relied acquiring popular neighborhood venues. By 1938, their Minnehaha Theatre chain consisted of five movie houses. On the North side of Minneapolis they had the Camden and the Robin. On the city’s Southside the Volks owned the Nile and the Falls. Over in St. Paul the brothers operated the New Ray Theater. After a fire at the Camden in 1934, the Volks hired the design firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan to redesign and remodel the theater.
Founded in 1923, Jacob J. Liebenberg and Seeman I. Kaplan’s design firm was responsible for at least 200 theater construction and renovation projects in the upper Midwest. Liebenberg & Kaplan’s first theater, the atmospheric Granada, later renamed the , opened in South Minneapolis on September 26th, 1928. The auditorium evoked a Spanish courtyard, when the lights went down stars twinkled on the ceiling and projected clouds rolled past an artificial moon. Stadium seating replaced the typical balcony arrangement. The Granada was one of the first movie houses in the Twin Cities designed for talking pictures. The building put Liebenberg & Kaplan on the map. Every theater in the country was retooling for sound and the firm gained a reputation for updating auditoriums to improving acoustics.
After a $30,000 remodel, the Volk’s Camden Theater opened its doors to the public on Friday, February 1st, 1935. The auditorium boasted a new screen, modern cooling, and car cushion type seats. Walls depicted various neighborhood activities. An extended lobby was complimented by a small lounge and powder puff room.
The following year the Volks razed the old Nile Theater and spent $100,000 erecting a new 1,000 seat movie house on the same site. Designer Perry E. Crowler fronted the Nile with pink Kasota stone interspersed with Cold Spring black granite. An elaborate Egyptian motif was employed both in exterior construction and interior decorations. The auditorium contained eight enormous wall panels depicting scenes taken from actual Egyptian temples and tombs. The building was topped with an obelisk shaped, neon illuminated pillar. Beyond the Nile’s black granite box office, the lobby was done up in black and red vitrolite. A lounge that ran the length of the basement contained a variety of Egyptian style furnishings. The Nile was the first Volk venue to feature soundproof rooms where children could watch the show without disturbing others. Built into the wall, next to the projection room, the children’s section could accommodate about 25. Sound was provided through a loudspeaker system. A clear view of the screen was afforded by a 12 foot window.
The Volks continued to expand their business and by the end of the Great Depression they were running one of the largest theater chains in the Twin Cities. The next step was to build a couple new venues, but Sidney and William’s portfolio stagnated after America was dragged into World War II. Sidney went off to serve in the Army where ha attained the rank of Captain. William stayed behind to run the business. Between 1942 and 1944, President Roosevelt’s War Production Board prohibited nonessential construction. Theater exhibitors nationwide, shelved their plans. After the building bans were lifted the Volk brothers, announced their intention to build a $125,000 theater in Robbinsdale. The new venue would have at least 1000 seats and build on the success of the Robin Theatre. The announcement was met with grumbling. It had been 12 years since a movie house had opened in the Twin Cities and that suited the old theater owners as just fine. The editors of the trade magazine, Greater Amusements, accused the Volks of initiating a “theatre-building orgy”.
A year later the Volks added fuel to the fire when they announced their intention to build a new movie house to replace the aging Falls Theater on Minnehaha Avenue in South Minneapolis. A group of established exhibitors told the city council that a permit should be denied on the grounds that construction would lead to a glut of new movie houses. The argument failed to persuade and the Volks got their license.
The brothers worked with Liebenberg & Kaplan to create a Streamline Moderne design for their New Falls Theatre. After about two years of planning, a $250,000, 80 by 125-foot building rose up the corner of 38th Street and 42nd Avenue South. The new movie house contained a large auditorium with 25-foot ceiling and 700 stadium seats. The Volks decided on a name change to avoid association with the dingy old place on Minnehaha Avenue. They opened their new showcase as the Riverview Theatre on December 29, 1948. Billed as “The Theater of Tomorrow Today”, the Riverview made the cover of Box Office and was featured in a variety of national publications. The theater’s first movie was “June Bride” starring Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery.
The following year, when the Volks were ready to move forward with their Robbinsdale project. The little suburb was growing by leaps and bounds, thousands of new homes were being built on the western edge of the city. In the coming years, the Robbinsdale School District would build 18 elementary schools to accommodate the post-war baby boom. Sydney and William wanted to make a splash. They called on Liebenberg & Kaplan for another theatre design. The firm delivered and the brothers approved an unprecedented, ultramodern concept to be built on a grand scale. The Volks purchased a sprawling, ten-acre site, overlooking Crystal Lake.
An early Liebenberg & Kaplan’s schematic for the lot featured a shopping center, office buildings, landscaped parking for over 1,000 cars, a playground and a pool. Minnesota Architecture critic Larry Millett noted,
“Liebenberg produced an exciting design for the theater that would be his mid-
century masterpiece—the magnificent Terrace.”
While the eventual site development lacked some of the more elaborate elements of Liebenberg & Kaplan’s schematic plan, most of the Terrace’s imaginative design reached construction. The theater was situated at the rear of the site, on a rise overlooking the surrounding portion of lake, swamp and countryside. The Terrace was set back into a shopping center plot by several hundred feet to allow space for a shopping mall. The set-back also allowed enough space for even more parking.
The theater marked a break in Liebenberg & Kaplan’s earlier indoor theater designs, which were primarily Art Deco and Streamline Moderne in style. The Mid-Century Modern Terrace rose from the lot as reinforced concrete and steel frame building, faced with a blonde brick and stone veneer.
The north and east sides of the building featured bold, geometric forms and a row of dramatically tilted, plate glass windows 80 feet long and 20 feet high. A red brick tower set off with backlit glass and crowned with mirrored signs anchored the northeast corner of the building and proclaimed “Terrace” to all of Robbinsdale.
The Volk brothers spared no expense in the construction of their flagship theater. Cost estimates for the building ran between $700,000 and one million dollars. The Terrace’s improbable foyer was an ambitious space slipped under a ceiling stepped to follow the stadium line of the auditorium.
The warm and elegant brick, stone, wood, and copper used throughout the interior reflected mid-century residential trends, more than the sterility of International Style or the free-form drama of Atomic Age commercial buildings. To the right of the entrance, niches were carved out of the main lobby for a candy counter and snack bar. Fine fixtures and finishes included a walnut-clad popcorn machine two level, copper “wishing well” drinking fountain. Turkish loomed carpeting, furnished by A & M Karagheusian , added to the high-level of refinement. Rugs from the company, headquartered in Manhattan, could also be found in the Radio City Music Hall and the United States Supreme Court building.
Immediately off the foyer, moviegoers found an inviting, sunken lounge designed as an enlarged and impeccably decorated mid-century den. The lounge was rimmed off by a low stone wall that enclosed a long tier of cushioned seats. A copper-hooded fireplace was nestled between enormous slanted windows and an array of plant boxes. Served by the candy counter in the foyer, the combination of cut stone, California redwood and blonde oak gave the sunken lounge an informal, outdoorsy atmosphere.
Opposite the foyer the Terrace’s television room gave a nod to the new. In a period when movie theaters across the country were either closing or competing with televisions, the Volk brothers decided they could use the novelty of television to extend the movie-goer experience. Rumor had it that a national circuit of movie theaters would soon offer top spotting events and Broadway plays on an exclusive, pay-to-see-it basis.
Inside the auditorium a semicircular stage was approached by carpeted steps broken by square stone planters at the perimeter. 1,299 plush seats supplied by American Seating Co. were arranged in a stadium formation facing a 26-foot screen, outfitted by Walker HI Plastic. A curtain, furnished by National Theatre Supply hid an easel-type frame. In the back of the auditorium a glassed off “crying room”. This sound-proof nursery could accommodate wailing infants or noisy school age birthday parties.
The restrooms at the Terrace were gorgeously appointed with marble counters, inset lighting and a built in planter. A large, ladies powder room was painted in tones of gray and rust. The men’s restroom featured a redwood smoking lounge. At a time when home air conditioning was still largely unaffordable, the Terrace’s cooling system , supplied by United States Air Conditioning Corporation equipment, and 52 degree well water became an area attraction. The enormous and largely unfinished basement level of the theater contained three garage stalls. A system of dumbwaiters served the candy counters and soda bar from storage rooms. An upper floor held two private offices for the Volk brothers.
The Terrace almost didn’t make it to grand opening day. On May 12th, 1951, 10,000 gallons of fuel oil seeped out of the basement. A engineer decided it was unusable and pumped it into a nearby swamp. A couple small boys playing with matches did the inevitable and flames rose so high North Minneapolis residents thought all Robbinsdale was going up in smoke. Traffic on West Broadway and old Highway 52 backed up for miles, but no damages or injuries were reported, and the Terrace Theatre opened for business on May 23, 1951 with a showing of Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor’s Father’s Little Dividend.
The Volk’s new theater received rave reviews in the local papers. The North Hennepin Post warned readers that words would fail them when they entered the Terrace. A July 1st, 1951 spread in the Minneapolis Star claimed that theater men from as far away as Hollywood California were making hurried pilgrimages to Robbinsdale after they heard about the Terrace.
Sydney Volk told the Minneapolis Tribune’s Will Jones that free coffee would be served at every show, but that was just the beginning. Sydney was already dreaming about a new theatre.
He told Jones “I’m going to build one someday that will be out of this world. You’ll drive right inside and an elevator will take your car away to be parked. They’ll be a big smorgasbord with caviar. It will be magnificent.”
WCCO radio personality, Cedric Adams confided with his listeners,
“A new landmark has gone up and it made me gasp. The complete elegance of the lobby virtually stuns you when you walk in. There is no other theater you have ever seen like the Terrace Theatre.”
The August 4th, 1951 issue of Box Office Magazine featured the Terrace on the cover and contained a five page, illustrated article that praised the Terrace as “The Gem of the Lakes.”
Business Week offered a slightly more skeptical appraisal,
“Last May, two Minneapolis movie owners pulled a stunt that made every other exhibitor in the area decide they had blown their lids sky high. In nearby Robbinsdale, Minn., William and Sidney Volk opened a movie theater that had cost them close to $1 million to build. Since television seemed to have put the movie business solidly on the skids, this looked like an elaborate way to commit suicide.”
Sidney Volk brushed aside criticism and explained to local reporters,
“Every home has a kitchen, every home has a refrigerator, every home has a freezer, but people still go out to eat. There are so many wonderful people in the world! You can’t meet them by the television you have to go out and talk to them.”
A couple months later, Business Week changed their tune and noted that the Terrace was doing a booming business the likes of which most theater owners hadn’t seen since before the war.
In the follow up article Sidney Volk told Business Week that based on his Robbinsdale experience he believed that the business had changed and realistic theater owners like himself had what the public wanted. Sydney it this way,
“Believe me on this point too: If a woman has been at home tending her kids all day, washing, ironing and cooking, it’s going to take more than television to keep her there at night. As long as we have women in this world people are going to go out. Nobody ever bought a mink coat for his wife to keep her warm.” The box office told the story and Terrace proved to be a success.
Downtown theaters had a monopoly on first run shows in those days, but First-rate movies were appearing at the Terrace as early as possible. The Volks claimed the Terrace was built to serve all of the metropolitan area of the Twin Cities and people were coming in from as far as fifty miles away. A guest register contained signatures from 25,000 people from every state in the union, Canada and many foreign countries. The Volks had a reputation for service and a column called Hollywood sang their praises in the Lubbock, Texas, Morning Avalanche,
“ talks volumes about the Terrace Theatre in Robbinsdale, Minn. just outside Minneapolis. Two Brothers, Sidney and William Volk own it. ‘When you enter the theater”, said Gordon, ‘There’s a counter in the foyer with an attractive young lady telling you the picture is starting or that you’re early and would you like to go into the lounge and be served with hot coffee, doughnuts or sandwiches with no extra charge. The night Gordon was there two people came in late and the show was nearly over, but the Volks ran the whole picture for just two people. Sidney Volk said, ‘We stay open until the last person leaves-we never want a dissatisfied person.’ Their business is the best for miles around. The theater has parking facilities for 1,000 cars and is built on 15 acres of land.’ So, if you go to Minnesota visit Volk says Gordon.”
In 1955, the brothers bought out the old Bofferding’s Point service station and tavern at 3561 West Broadway and demolished it to make way for another entrance to the Terrace’s ever-expanding parking lot. A couple months later, William Volk told the North Hennepin Post that long range plans call for landscaping of the hollow behind the theater included a shopping mall and a lagoon.
In April 1954 local Catholic priests, acting on their own initiative asked movie houses all over the Twin Cities not to play pictures on the Catholic Legion of Decency condemned “C” lists. The Terrace caught the attention of the group after a showing of “The Moon is Blue”. Despite box office success, the romantic comedy starring William Holden, David Niven, and Maggie McNamara earned the dreaded “C” and was banned in Kansas, Ohio, and Maryland. William Volk pledged not to play any more films on the condemned list. He later told a reporter from Variety magazine that the Terrace had seen increased Catholic support for “The Robe”. Robbinsdale’s Catholic priest, Father Nolan boosted the picture from his pulpit. Volk went on to say he believed that his cooperation with local Catholics helped the Terrace garner a record breaking $10,000 gross during the film’s first week.
Building on the rave reviews of the ultramodern Terrace, the Volk brothers looked again to Liebenberg & Kaplan to complete a $50,000 remodel of their Riverview in Minneapolis. Completed in April 1956, the new lobby space felt like a a living room graced with Herman Miller chairs and divans, Dunbar tables, McCobb stools, stunning draperies and graceful modern lamps. A television area and a two tired copper drinking fountain similar to the one at the Terrace were set off with walnut panels imposed on light wood.
9 years after the Terrace opened Sidney Volk decided it was time to freshen up America’s finest theater. He filled the television lounge with rocking, red, plush seats, replaced the ropes with Honduran mahogany curls set in plastic and framed in walnut. New carpet in three shades covered the foyer auditorium and lounge. Window treatments patterned after the original designs by Edward Stone for the Government Building in New Dehli, India were hung and framed in Belgian linen. A young Robbinsdale Artist by the name of Keith Havens created six paintings for the ramps around the auditorium.
In December 1960, burglars smashed through concrete blocks to get into the Terrace’s walk-in safe. Terrace manager, Robert Haugen told the Minneapolis Star that the vault was used for records and files and a wall safe containing theater receipts was untouched.
In 1962, William Volk stepped away from the theater business and opened a string of International House of Pancake restaurants with the former owner of the Campus and Varsity and Ritz Theaters, Sol Fisher. One of their first locations was built on near the intersection of Bass Lake Road and Highway 52 in Crystal. Strangely enough the two were preceded in the pancakes business by two other old movie house men, Martin Lebedoff who owned the Homewood Theater on Plymouth Avenue and Charles Rubenstein who owned the Hollywood Theatre over Northeast, bought the Franchise rights Uncle John’s Pancake Houses a year earlier.
A couple months after William’s exit, Sidney Volk hired Liebenberg and Kaplan to remodel the Nile Theater in South Minneapolis. A sound-proof party room replaced the old “crying room” at the rear of the auditorium. The party room could be reserved for free. They were usually used for children’s birthdays, but groups of adults occasionally reserved one to yak and munch together during the show. Seats in the New Nile were bigger, softer and more widely space. Elaborate Italian and German lighting fixture were installed, and a large ceramic mural executed by a couple Florida artists extended through two stories through the upper and lower lobbies. Sidney rebranded and advertised the Terrace, Nile, Riverview and Camden as the Volk Luxury Theatres.
During the 1960’s, Sidney Volk involved himself in a variety of civic and business associations. In Robbinsdale he served several years as secretary of North Memorial Hospital’s executive committee. In 1966, Sidney served as vice-president of the North Central Association of Theatre Owners.
Montgomery Wards announced plans for a new location to be built on a 13-acre lot behind the Terrace in 1965. Completed a year later the two-level full-line store eventually employed over 500 people. Special services included an optical department, hearing aid department, garden shop, snack bar and 120 seat “Buffeteria”. Wards also built a 24-car automobile service center adjacent to the frontage road on the northeast corner of the property.
In 1970, the music, peace and love festival film “Woodstock” opened at the Riverview. Kids stood outside with pickets protesting the price. On sign said “$3.50 is not in the spirit of Woodstock.” Sidney Volk told the Minneapolis Tribune,
“I don’t want to charge that price, but I don’t have anything to say about it. Warner Brothers set the price. In New York City, they’re getting $5.00”
In 1973, Marlon Brando decided to decline an Oscar for his performance in The Godfather and sent Native American actress Sacheen Littlefeather to do the honors. The day after she announced to the Academy and the enormous television audience that Brando “very regretfully” could not accept the award, as he was protesting Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans in film, local newspaper columnist Will Jones told his readers there was little cause for offense. Even if Brando chose an inappropriate occasion to champion a cause and the Academy Awards had very little to do with the portrayal of Native Americans, Oscars had been handed out for years for reasons that had very little to do with the recipients acting skill. Sidney Volk said movie goers were having none of it. Volk told Jones he had set the film for a three-week run following the awards show, figuring all the hoopla would bring in that much more business, but he ended up pulling the picture after just a week.
“It’s Brando who killed it”, Volk said “Nobody wants to see him now. It’s the same with Jane Fonda. You can’t give her away in my theaters.”
William Volk passed away in 1973 at the age of 74. A year later the Minneapolis Star reported that all eight city’s independent movie theater were struggling to survive. Stiff competition from newer suburban movie houses and big theater chains left many owners operating in the red. Sidney Volk told the paper,
“An in-town theater used to be the biggest gold mine in town. Now it’s struggling. The biggest problem is the shortage of films. The good ones, like ‘Love Story”, make money, but how many of those are there?”
Volk pessimism was shared by other owners as theaters all over town remodeled their lobbies, lowered ticket prices, improved sound systems and created smoking loges like the ones in Volk’s theaters. Sidney said the situation was unlikely to improve and noted that,
“Neighborhood theaters are in trouble all over the country because young people have moved out and old people stay home.”
In the mid-70’s, the Terrace made a variety of improvements and most of the auditorium equipment was upgraded.
Sidney enjoyed the twilight of his career at the Terrace, where he occupied the handsome 2nd floor, interconnected offices the brothers built for their Robbinsdale Amusement Corporation. The rooms were laced with custom millwork, built-in desks, tall cabinets and gorgeous full-height corner windows. When business was slow or the mood struck him, Sidney would wander out into the hall, climb a few steps and slip into a show through his own private entrance.
In failing health, Volk sold the Terrace to the Plitt Theater company in 1979. Shortly after the ink was dry on the deal, work began on a 350,000 square foot, 42 store enclosed mall situated between Montgomery Wards and the Terrace. The new mall snuggled right up against the theater and wiped out much of the Terrace’s view of Crystal Lake and the highway.
In 1980, Sidney Volk put the Nile Theatre up for sale, but continued to run the Camden and Riverview theaters.The Camden was doing relatively well, and the Riverview still drew a crowd on weekends. In 1981, Volk donated wall space on the back of the Camden Theatre for a mural celebrating the neighborhood’s Showboat Days Festival. In 1982, Sidney Volk passed away at the age of 74. A year later the Nile Theatre was demolished to make way for a nursing home. The Volk’s estate continued to operate the Camden and the Riverview.
Plitt did little to endear itself to the community. Shortly after they took over, 15 residents and three staff members from the Prospect Park Health Center loaded into two Project Mobility buses to see the film “Joni”. The movie was the personal story of a woman’s fight to cope with her disability following and accident. Entering the Terrace the group learned that the Plitt Discount tickets they had purchased could not be used for “Joni” They residents didn’t have enough cash between them for full price tickets, a staff member offers to write a check. The new Plitt manager explained that the theater did not accept checks and 15 special needs people we sent home. The incident resulted in a few letters to the editor and daily phone calls to the Terrace. A month later the management arranged for transportation, free refreshments and a special screening of the “Black Stallion” for the Prospect Park residents that had been turned away. A letter to the editor penned by staff members asked that abusive call to the theater regarding the mix up cease.
On Monday, April 30th, 1984 director Jonathan Demme and David Byrne of the Talking Heads came to Robbinsdale to introduce their concert film “Stop Making Sense” to a packed house at the Terrace Theatre. The movie had yet to go into distribution. Byrne was in residence at the Walker Art Center. It was only the second time the film had been shown to the public. Byrne told Jon Bream at the Star Tribune he felt bad about the Talking Heads skipping Minneapolis on a previous tour and wanted to make up for it somehow.
In 1985, Plitt Theaters was sold to a group that included the Canadian firm Cineplex Odeon Cinemas. Two years later operation of the Terrace was transferred to the Minneapolis based Midcontinent Theater Co. At the time the growing local chain owned about 50 theaters in Minnesota and the Dakotas. Midcontinent immediately decided it was no longer feasible to have a full-time projectionist at the Terrace and began installing automated the equipment. Theater managers took over the task of threading projectors between shows. The movie projectionist union put up a picket line to protest the release of the theater’s union projectionist.
Mid-Continent’s Vice President, Larry Kirscherman told the Minneapolis Star Tribune,
“It seems to me the projectionists have taken a beating in this town with cutbacks in union jobs by the UA and Cinema land theater chains, of course they didn’t to take a stand against one of the big chains, so they took it out on us.”
In the same article Kirsch man went on to say Midcontinent would be transitioning the Terrace from a first-run house to a 99-cent-admission, second run theater. The television room was closed due to “increasing vandalism”. The plush seats that sat through the 60’s and 70’s without a mark on them were shredded. The room was eventually converted to a glassed-in office. In November1987 it was announced that the newly renamed Midco Terrace could be converted to a 4 screen second run complex.
Midcontinent hoped to find a niche between the time a movie left the first run theaters and the video rental market. Plans were drawn up to divide the front from the back and split the halves down the middle. The result would have been theaters with about 300 seats each. In the end the plan was revised, and the Terrace partitioned three ways by dividing the theaters upper stadium seats. A year later the new Midco Terrace started advertising 49 cent Wednesdays.
Writing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press in November of 1988, architectural critic, Larry Millet noted that the public was tired of watching movies in “oversized shoeboxes with concrete floors”, but ev en as luxury was making a comeback in with projects like Cineplex Odin’s 2,000 seat Willow Creek theater complex in St. Louis Park, the area would never see anything like the Terrace again.
Millet noted that while the 50’s are often thought of as an age pitch and none too brave diners, drive-ins and wretched furniture, the decade produced some fascinating architecture and the Terrace was one of the best-preserved examples of late Moderne High-style.
Todd Frager, who managed the Terrace at the time, told Millet,
“People around here really like this theater. It seems like every week somebody will come in here and say he remembers seeing matinees here as a kid. There’s no doubt this theater is something special.”
Less than five years after Midcontinent recreated the Terrace as a second run discount movie house, they switched the format again. The change was suggested by distributers led by the folks at Disney. There was concern that with only eight screens left at Brookdale there wouldn’t be enough theaters in the northwest suburbs to handle the annual flood of summer movies. Midcontinent’s Vice President said,
“Disney came to us and said, ‘Your numbers for families and children are very strong. We’ll give you all our product if the theater would switch to first runs. We analyzed it and decided to give it a shot. It’s a very close marriage with Disney. Obviously if it’s a financial bust we’ll go back to second runs, but our intention is to go straight through with this.”
The Terrace didn’t show Disney films exclusively, but hits like the Lion King, Cool Runnings and the Mighty Ducks kept the new format afloat for over a year.
In 1995 Carmike Cinemas Inc. acquired the Terrace and 64 other screens for Midcontinent Theatre Co. The new properties made Carmike the second largest motion picture exhibitor in the United States. At the time second run theaters were still doing well in the Twin Cities. The Terrace hung in there for a couple years, appealing to African American teenagers with films like “Vampire in Brooklyn” and “Higher Learning”. The Terrace closed in January of 1999. The last movies on the marquee were, “Meet Joe Black”, “The Siege” and “Rush Hour”.
In 2003 the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota listed the building at the top of its list of most endangered historic properties. Various schemes were floated and reuse the building. A grant was obtained for asbestos removal. A new owner proposed remodeling the building for office space. After those plans fell through the theater was boarded up and the heat was shut off.
The old movie place rotting on the hillside pulled at the heart strings of Robbinsdale residents. In February of 2012, local rocker, Adam Fesenmaier started a Facebook group called, “Save the Terrace.” The group grew and inspired a following of Terrace fans and friends sharing memories.
In the summer of 2014, area artist, Alison Nguyen attracted attention to the cause at Robbinsdale’s annual Whiz Bang Days Parade. Her “Terrace 2.0” Float created a media buzz and reminded Whiz Bang crowds that it was time to do something with this amazing historic building. In January 2015, “Save the Terrace” took a few steps off the little screen and into the real world. A group of concerned citizens, working with the Robbinsdale Historical Society, organized themselves as “Save the Historic Terrace Theatre.” They met often, drawing on local talents and resources to explore ways to reopen the historic building as a multi-use facility. On social media, the group gained support and grew into a movement. On May 15th, 2015 they presented the Robbinsdale City Council with a petition signed by 2,161 people, requesting the denial of any permit to demolish the building. Save the Historic Terrace members attended League of Historic American Theatres conferences and partnered locally with the Preservation Alliance of Minnesota. Early in 2016 the group worked with the Robbinsdale Historical Society to obtain a grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to write a nomination to put the Terrace on the National Register of Historic Places. Save the Historic Terrace had hoped to acquire the building but failing that the group hoped that historic designation would encourage redevelopment and reuse. The City of Robbinsdale supported their efforts to bring about redevelopment and attract attention to the historic building.
Sixty-five years after the theater’s opening, the Mayor and City Council proclaimed May 23, 2016, as Historic Terrace Theatre Day, and recognized the Historic Terrace Theatre’s cultural and architectural importance.
Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton also signed a proclamation noting that “it is vital to bring attention to historic buildings in order to show support for historic projects.”
Less than two months after the theater’s 65th Anniversary, Inland Development Group and the City of Robbinsdale invited the public to an open house and announced that the Terrace would be torn down to make way for a grocery store, coffee shop, and gas station. The day after the event David Leonhardt, board chair of The Historic Terrace Theatre, launched an internet petition calling for a nationwide boycott of Hy-Vee. Over 1000 supporters signed on to the effort. On August 19th, 2016 Hy-Vee announced that they were putting the project on hold. In a prepared statement a Hy-Vee spokeswoman, said, “Over the past several weeks, it’s been difficult to witness the friction our proposed project has caused among Robbinsdale residents. When we enter a community, we want to be respectful of our neighbors’ history, culture and all the things that matter to them. We will continue to assess the situation and keep communication lines open with city officials.”
The mayor of Robbinsdale appealed to supporters of the project on social media and asked residents to voice their opinions via an internet survey site. Meanwhile a new group, Friends of the Terrace, was formed to fight the demolition.
On August 23, 2016 the Robbinsdale City Council reiterated their support of the project by approving demolition and Tax Increment Financing to reimburse the developer for costs incurred to make the property ready for construction. The Friends of the Terrace immediately filed a lawsuit under the Minnesota Environmental Rights Act. An October 10th hearing was scheduled for a judge to rule on the theater’s historic status. Friends of the Terrace requested that the court delay demolition until after the hearing, but on September 19, the judge denied the request and cleared the way to tear down the Terrace. The Friends appealed the decision and on Thursday, September 22, they asked the court for an expedited hearing and emergency injunction to prohibit demolition. Two days later a crew arrived intent on tearing down the building before the court could rule. The Friends of the Terrace attorney contacted the chief justice of the Hennepin County Court. She rushed to the scene to halt the demolition, but the crew caved in several lobby windows and punched holes in the upper level moments before she arrived. The judge issued an order to stop, and the crew began filling the lobby with asphalt from the driveway. The judge’s order put the building’s demolition on hold until September 26th.
The Friends of the Terrace attorney asked the court for more time. The request went back to the same judge who had denied the previous extension. This time he extended the stay on demolition until September 30th and ordered the Friends of the Terrace to come up with $6.3 million in bonds to indemnify Inland Development Group and the Robbinsdale Economic Development Authority. The amount was at least forty times more than had ever been required in a similar case. Preservationist raised concerns that the judge was setting a precedent for. The Terrace never got its day in court and demolition began in earnest on October 1st, 2016. A couple months after the Terrace was torn down Hy-Vee announced they were ready to return to the project.
The fight to save the Terrace may serve as a cautionary tale. The historical importance of the building was widely recognized. There was a deep well of support for renovation and reuse, but preservationists quickly ran out of options after city officials put their support behind an ambitious developer partnered with a multi-billion-dollar corporation.
The Terrace may have stood a better chance if the building were located down the road in Minneapolis. Historical preservation is an uphill climb in the suburbs where budgets are small and short-sighted priorities revolve around new development. The cultural legacy of Mid-Century Modern architecture is rarely considered in the areas where the style is most prevalent. As the suburban ring ages, the importance of small, local historical societies grows. Although these organizations are tiny, understaffed, and underfunded, when it comes to preservation, they are often the first and only line of defense.
Two years after the theater was demolished, a new group was formed to tell the story of the Terrace and restore artifacts from the theater. Brought together by David Leonhardt, The Terrace Legacy Project is a collaboration of the Robbinsdale Historical Society and Leonhardt’s own America’s Classic Cinemas. The group has devoted itself to raising funds to preserve and restore the Terrace’s tower letters and chandeliers. In August 2019, the Terrace Legacy Project opened an exhibit at the Robbin Gallery in Robbinsdale. The display featured a wide variety of artifacts, photos and memorabilia. Two letters rewired and restored letters from the famous Terrace tower were and lit up in the gallery. Hundreds of visitors came through to view the display and share their stories of “America’s Finest Theatre At their Very Door!” The Terrace may be gone, but the memories will have a long run in Robbinsdale.
Pictures at the top of the post are courtesy of the Riverview Theater in South Minneapolis. Text by Pete Richie
I loved this grand theater as a little girl, and even at that young age I was able to enjoy and appreciate the exceptionally beautiful decor. I am only disappointed that I have not seen one photo of the ‘water walls, with the copper fixtures.
Here’s one!
