Davis Square used to have two movie theatres

[ron_newman]

Did you know that the corner of Day and Herbert streets used to contain a movie theatre?

It started out as the West Somerville Congregational Church, which moved a building here from Cambridgeport in 1874. In 1912, the congregation moved to a new church building at 95 College Avenue, where they remain today as the First Congregational Church.

Meanwhile, they sold their old church building to a movie theatre company -- which had to overcome more than three years of community opposition before they finally opened in 1913. Even the president and women's dean of Tufts University lobbied against it. The mayor finally allowed the Day Street Olympia theatre to open only after acknowledging that it would be unfair to deny it a permit while at the same time allowing the new Somerville Theatre to be built two blocks away.

The Day Street Olympia was later renamed E. M. Loew's Davis Square Theatre. Unfortunately, it suffered frequent fires. After an especially bad fire in 1942, E.M. Loew decided that he'd had enough, and closed it. I don't know how long it remained standing before it was demolished. The site is now a metered municipal parking lot.

For much more information and many pictures, visit David Guss's excellent website, Lost Theatres of Somerville. (Click on "Day Street Olympia.")