History
Athena Hall has occupied many uses in its long lifetime. It was built in Port Jefferson as a common meeting place for the town and at one point functioned as the high school gymnasium after a fire. The building that was built as basically a large cube was finally cut in half to produce the theatre upstairs with raked seating and lobbies and a second stage underneath. Athena Hall ultimately became a popular vaudeville house where a number of famous acts would pass through weekly. As vaudeville waned, Athena Hall became used more as a movie theatre. The famous "Griswold Film Splicers" were manufactured in the very shop of the building that is now used as a second stage. This piece of machinery was used for virtually every motion picture, professional and amateur and was considered the latest technology at the time. After its use for motion pictures, it fell into disuse until it was acquired by Theatre Three. Theatre Three is a year-round, non-profit professional theatre that was founded in 1969. For the past 38 seasons, Theatre Three has occupied Athena Hall, a now 140+ year-old historic building in the heart of Port Jefferson.
Read more about this topic: Theatre Three
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