Avon Cinema

The building at 260 Thayer Street began as the Toy Theater in 1915.[3] The theater soon closed and possibly served as an amateur theatre or gymnasium with parking garage for a few years.[3]

The Dulgarian family purchased the theatre in 1938, advertising it as devoted to "the showing of unusual pictures."[2] The new cinema debuted on February 15, 1938 with the French film Beethoven's Great Love (titled "The Life and Loves of Beethoven" in the U.S.).[2] Tickets cost 50 cents for evening shows, 40 cents for matinees, and 25 cents before 2pm.[2] In 1937, Louis Gordon Theatres Inc. leased the property from the Dulgarian Brothers with the intention of turning it back into a theater. Since then, any renovations have been minor and the property remains in the hands of the Dulgarians.[4]

According to Cinema Treasures, the movie Marty premiered here, among others.[5] They had what was also described as a "first-run 'class' policy" continuing through the 1960s.[5] In the 1970s, the Avon became a repertory house and was known as the Avon Repertory Cinema.[5] During the Blizzard of 1978, the Avon retained power despite a widespread outage.[3]

In 1983, they returned to showing "first run foreign and domestic films of distinction."[5] The owners kept the heat on, and allowed patrons to stay the night.[3] A heavy maroon curtain to cover the screen was added in the 1970s, and in the 1980s a false ceiling was removed from the lobby to uncover the original arched ceiling.[2] The theatre held a grand re-opening party in 1988 to celebrate the renovation.[2]

A digital projector was installed in 2014, as distributors moved away from distributing films on 35mm reels.[2] In 2018, the cinema celebrated 80 years of continuous operation in the hands of a single family.[2] The owners said they try to "keep the experience as close to how our grandparents saw movies as possible."[2]

In July 2023, a disruption during a screening of Asteroid City at the Avon resulted in the evacuation of about 100 people from the building. Later in the week Providence Police announced that the group that had run into the theater were "trolling", and they had arrested four individuals and charged them with disorderly conduct relating to the incident.[6][7]