Rivoli Theater

Built in the 1920s

As you head south passing Center Market, you'll see the Rockaway Mercantile Businesses of Simply Charming and SAI Design. In the 1920s, the Bradley family built the Rivoli Theater in this location, a place where Rockaway residents gathered not only to watch the latest films but also to cheer on local schoolchildren performing plays on its stage. Later, the Harvey family took ownership and eventually renamed it the Sea Vu Theater.

Just south of the theater, at the present-day El Trio Loco site, the Sohler family ran a rooming house and confectionery, which the Harveys later folded into the growing theater complex. Besides it, Kay Harvey kept a real estate and insurance office, adding to the small cluster of community life centered around the building.

Rockaway Historian Don Best grew up watching movies here, including The Creature of the Black Lagoon in 3D. He remembered...

"After watching this movie, I was aqua diving in Lake Lytle, and was underneath on the east side of the lake. All of a sudden, I started thinking about The Creature, and I got out of the lake as fast as I could swim!"

In 1956, the old theater building came down.