The Historic Strand Theater in Rockland Maine
The Strand Theater is Back in Business
By Fran Folsom
Visitors to Rockland Maine are in for a treat with the
opening of the newly restored Strand Theater. This painstaking restoration has
placed the Strand Theater on the National Register of Historic Places.
 The Strand has been a Main Street landmark since it opened
in February 1923 to a sellout crowd for the silent movie My Wild Irish
Rose. Built by Joseph Dondis, the Strand was the
first building to rise from the ashes of a devastating downtown fire in 1922.
The Dondis family decided to make it into two cinemas in
the 1970’s covering the exterior ornamental brick with aluminum siding, and
putting a second screen where the balcony was. The family closed the theater in
2001 and sold it to a multi-plex corporation who never opened it.
Enter Matthew Simmons, a Texas businessman with a summer
home in Rockland, he purchased the theater, rescuing it from darkness. Simmons
embarked on an eighteen month rehabilitation project that included the
installation of a state-of-the-art sound system, restoration of the outer brick,
the tin ceilings, the terra cotta wall tiles, and the 626 seats. The second
screen has been ripped out and the balcony is back.
Today the Strand takes on a new life running current films,
documentaries, second run movies and classic’s such as It Happened One Night,
Casablanca and North by Northwest.
Knowing the theater’s history of many generations munching
buttered popcorn from the concession stand while watching a movie, Simmons made
only a slight change; two concession stands, a swanky one by the balcony for
martini’s and a neon lit chrome one
 in the main lobby. The only thing missing is
the buttered popcorn, it’s now made with wild sunflower oil. But, they have Lake
Champlain 5-Star chocolate bars and to-die-for brownies from the Atlantic Baking
Company.
For anyone who wants to ‘make out’ in the balcony there’s a
midnight movie series. The good times are back at
the Strand Theater.
Penobscot Bay Regional Chamber of Commerce
1-207-596-0376
www.therealmaine.com
The Strand Theater
1-207-594-0070
www.rocklandstrand.com
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