823 Haddon Avenue  is an 1928 Venetian style, 1,197-seat movie theatre, which was active until 1962, and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.  The famed cellist, YoYo Ma, recorded the Grammy winning “Premiers - Concertos for Violoncello and Orchestra by Danielpour, Kirchner & Rouse” with the Philadelphia orchestra here in 1993. In an adaptive re-use, this historic building is now the showroom for Michael Bruce Florist and home to Simply Inviting and the Collingswood Book Trader.

The first floor façade is brick construction with painted cast stone. Ornate iron lanterns and terrra cotta panels with lutes and women in relief are above the entrances. The upper floor is red and tan glazed brick
in a diapering pattern. The iron balconies originally fronted French doors.
Terra Cotta ornaments throughout display butterfly tiles, urns, owl spring
boxes, floral panels, acanthus leaf brackets, Bacchanalian faces, and
spiraled end-columns and brackets. Wave cornice detail between end terra
cotta panels and the center frieze bears “Collingswood.” A man and woman holding crown and lute in terra cotta relief make this unique building a contributing property individually listed on the National Register.

Inside you can seethe vestiges of architect David Supowitz’s details. Mercer tiles grace the storage room walls, original lighting crowns the arched ceilings, and gilded poster frames decorate the walls.  A grand fountain still graces what is now a back room, but at that time was adjacent to the theater entrance.  Though the theater was never air conditioned, heat relief came from air cooled by an evaporative “swamp cooler” system.

Supowitz was a prominent Philadelphia theatre architect who designed 24
cinema treasures, including the Hollywood Theatre in Atlantic City (1936)
and the Goldman Theatre in Philadelphia (1946). Only five of his theatres
remain open today. According to a February 1939 promotional postcard from the old Collingswood Theatre, new movies opened weekly. That month, “The Son of Frankenstein” starring Boris Karloff would debut, as would “Zaza” with Claudette Colbert.

The beautiful center frieze bearing the name “Collingswood” has become a Borough icon, appearing as the banner atop the Collingswood.com Web site.