The Post Office is looking to unload its downtown building. The Town of Westport is interested in buying it. No one knows what would go there, but First Selectman Gordon Joseloff is open to suggestions.
“06880” suggests a movie theater.
Westport nightlife died a while ago, of multiple causes. But if it were a corpse, the death certificate would read: “Complications from loss of movie theaters.”
The lines of the old Fine Arts Theater -- including the recessed entryway -- are still visible at Restoration Hardware.
Fine Arts I and II (now Restoration Hardware), III (now Matsu Sushi) and IV (now whatever is behind the Baskin-Robbins building) brought people downtown.
They had dinner before movies, and ice cream after. They went to nearby bars. They strolled and window-shopped, and if they saw something they liked, they returned when the stores were open to buy it.
The Post Office is not big enough for an Imax. We don’t need a multiplex, like the comically named Bow-Tie Cinemas.
But wouldn’t a place that showed indie and art films be great?
Fairfield's Community Theater, where Westporters go for entertainment.
Westporters go to the Garden Cinemas in Norwalk all the time. We’re big fans of Fairfield’s Community Theater. There’s no reason those towns can have independent movie theaters, and we can’t.
A movie theater would re-invigorate downtown. It would provide jobs, and stimulate the economy. It would give teenagers a place to go, and something to do.
Come on, Mr. First Selectman. Put your weight and prestige behind turning the Post Office into a movie theater.
It’s not like you don’t know the business. Your grandfather opened the Fine Arts Theater, back in 1916.
Knowing the way Westport works, if we get started today we’d have opening night at the Post Office Theater just in time for that centennial.
Westport is not like Anarene, Texas after that town lost its movie theater. Right?
