Last Friday, according to reporting in this paper, former owners George Gohl and Bill Gobeille passed ownership of the Garden Cinemas on to attorney and outgoing At-Large City Councilor Isaac Mass and his wife, Angela, a math teacher and Student Council advisor at Greenfield High School.
It’s always a bit unsettling when a popular local business changes hands. Will the new owners carry on its traditions and, at the same time, shepherd it into a new era? That was one concern when news broke that “The Garden” was about to be sold. Happily for Franklin County movie-goers, all signs point toward a positive outcome.
This is a matter of some gravitas for readers with long memories, who probably saw their first movie at The Garden. According to local movie theater historian Jonathan Boschen, “The Garden Theater was built in 1929 and it was designed by the Mewl and Rand architectural firm for the Goldstein brothers. It was the first and only movie “palace” to be built in all of Franklin County. The Garden was probably everyone’s favorite theater.
“The lobby and foyer of the Garden theater were designed to look like the interior of a Colonial house,” continued Boschen in a presentation he delivered at the Greenfield Public Library in 2013. “The auditorium was designed to look like the courtyard or garden of an old-fashioned Colonial New England Village. To create this illusion, they utilized murals depicting the colonial buildings and covered bridges and features.” And, of course, there were all those twinkling stars and drifting clouds in the ceiling.
The past 20 years have been marked by careful stewardship on the part of Gohl and Gobeille. The authentic movie theater organ was preserved for posterity and is now ensconced in the lobby, where fans can admire it. Historical items such as signs, posters, an original usher’s jacket (light blue with gold piping and brass buttons), an old lighting fixture and clock, the old proscenium arch and one of the little cupolas that used to stick out from the wall reside in the “museum room” off theater 2.
The theater has survived close calls over the years, including its renovation into a multiplex, its almost being subsumed by a planned performing arts center that would have shifted the theater into the former First National Bank building on Bank Row. That was in 2010. In 2013, it made the costly transition to digital projection. Every year saw a new project completed, such as better seating and a new roof. Most recently, it won reprieve by the Architectural Access Board for the installation of a new chairlift, now set for completion by Jan. 15.
Less tangible but equally important are such charitable events as the annual CANS Film Fest to combat food insecurity in Franklin County (which will be held Dec. 4 this year) and free admission from time to time. For example, the Garden Cinemas screened “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” for free on Oct. 31.
Gohl and Gobeille’s final act of stewardship was finding a good fit with a new owner, just the third in its 90-year history. “The Masses love the county and the movies,” Gohl said. “Isaac worked here as a projectionist a decade ago. We have been planning the succession of the business for a long time.”
For their part, the Masses said they plan to make some improvements of their own, including “freshening things up” and illuminating the iconic marquis, and they are committed to “maintaining the theater’s role as a charitable and community partner.
“This is a new beginning for us.”
It’s a new beginning for the theater as well. We congratulate old owners and new, and second Angela Mass’s observation that “a Garden Cinemas gift card is Santa’s favorite stocking stuffer.”