When Dave and Kacey Cinnater found out 30 Main Street was for sale, they jumped at the opportunity.  For 10  years they have been hosting private music parties at their 100 acre farm in beautiful Stillwater NJ with headliners, as Railroad Earth, Chris Smithers and Larry Keel.  With the music quality and quantity growing, a bigger more accessible venue was needed, which brings us to the Historic Blairstown Theatre.

 

       Built originally as a livery, 30 Main Street has worn many faces.  In 1913 Robert Roy and Raymond Smith opened the doors to a silent movie house, dubbing the theatre Roy's Hall.  Silent pictures were shown twice a week until a fire damaged the building in 1917.  The theater was restored and reopened showing silent films until the invasion of the "Talkies" in 1930.  When the flood of 1955 drowned much of Main Street, the theatre on the hill survived, however the competition from TV was to great and the theatre closed its doors in 1961.

 

    Nestled in the hills of Warren County the acoustically superb Historic Blairstown Theatre is located on Historic Main Street surrounded by charming shops, galleries and restaurants.  The Grand Opening with a performance by Railroad Earth front man Todd Sheaffer, sold out the 190 seat auditorium.  Other acts who graced the stage were comedian Gallagher, singer songwriter Kenny Rankin, and children's artists Brady Rymer and Mr. Ray, with upcoming performances by Citizen Cope's organist John Ginty and the Kathy Philips Trio, CD Release party for Patrick Fitzsimmons, formally of From Good Homes a special holiday production of a Christmas Carol, written by local playwright Michael DeMaio, and a benefit concert for local internet station HomeGrownRadioNJ.org.  Besides theater and music local artists will have the opportunity to display their work adding to the atmosphere of the cozy art house.

 

    The Historic Blairstown Theatre with it's bright blue facade braved, fire, flood and technology, and like the Phoenix which rose from the ashes, the lights are ready to shine on a new era of entertainment...

A 1923 photo of Roy's Hall during its days as a silent movie house.  The movie was Rags To Riches, featuring character actor, Richard Tucker, who would become the very first member of the new Screen Actors Guild in 1933.

Two newspaper ads for Roy's Hall from 1916 (above) and 1915 (below). Dustin Farnum had starred in Cecil B. DeMille's The Squaw Man in 1914 and many years later would become the inspiration for Dustin Hoffman's unusual first name.  Theodore Roberts, would later play Moses in DeMille's 1923 silent version of The Ten Commandments.