The Alamo Theatre is the second-oldest operating movie theater in the state of Maine.
In May 1916, O.J. Hussey bought land on the corner of Main and Elm Streets in Bucksport, Maine overlooking the Penobscot River. He and May Hussey erected a 90-foot-long brick building and called it The Alamo Theatre. The Alamo is one of the oldest surviving cinemas in northern New England, though its interior has seen many changes over the past half century.
The last film shown in The Alamo's original 600-seat theater was Godzilla, before the screen was torn down in 1956. Over the next several decades the building contained an A&P grocery store, a community health center, and a bar and grill, before Northeast Historic Film bought the building at a foreclosure auction in 1992. Thanks to the generous support of members and friends, NHF has brought the once vacant, boarded-up building back to life as a community cinema. NHF's administrative offices and Study Center are located above newly-renovated cinema, while the state-of-the-art Conservation Center was added on to the back of the original building.
"A new preservation policy must emphasize education, prevention of decay, and closer integration with outreach activities that make film accessible to a wider audience."
- from the Library of Congress study, Redefining Film Preservation, A National Plan.
The Alamo serves as NHF's primary form of access to its collections. A wide variety of film is shown in The Alamo, from contemporary Hollywood productions on weekends, to early silent films with live music at the annual Northeast Silent Film Festival, to the work of local filmmakers. The auditorium was designed with the support of the community and is used by local schools and organizations for a variety of performing arts activities and meetings. The facility offers excellent projection capabilities, sightlines, and acoustics.
"Our vision is to make the Alamo Theatre a centerpiece of Bucksport's downtown revival," says Richard Rosen, community leader and President of the Board of Northeast Historic Film. NHF is currently undertaking a capital campaign to continue restoring the building so that it can better serve the institution's integrated functions of collecting, preserving and making regional moving images available to the public.