Ashland

Shout out to the Coskis who included me in a field trip up to Ashland to watch "Casablanca" at the Ashland Theater (picture; better text, here. I'd call it Streamlined Moderne over Deco.) The show was a benefit for the Hanover County Humane Society. It turns out that the current set up at the theater is a jumbotron DVD player. Once they got all the lights off, the movie's magic made that okay.

The theater itself is quiet skinny; about as narrow as many modern movie theaters, but it goes much further back. It enjoys the mixed blessings of having been in use for most of its 50-some years. In the plus column: it stands, it's usable; the back-lit silhouette signs for the restrooms, and the wall tiles in the ladies' room, seem original. The seats seemed old, but are much further apart than any other older theater I've ever been to. Under the heading of "disappointing": the 1970s brown title on the bathroom floor, some odd dropped ceilings, a strangely plain lobby, late 1990s "deco" light fixtures. The new "deco" carpet and fresh paint, combined with a well-scrubbed feel bode well, though. A spot of peeled paint and damp in the theater itself suggests that, like so many of us, this ultra-rainy two years gave the owners roof troubles. (Sorry, quick Google and Kartoo searches don't tell me who owns it.)