Hidden treasures of the 1920s-era Beacon Theater revealed during construction work
Bow Tie Cinemas of Port Washington being renovated to bring back its old roots to a 1920s style dinner theatre, pictured here last week in Port Washington. A view from the stage looking toward the old mezzanine. Credit: Dawn McCormick
One hundred years after the publication of “The Great Gatsby,” the classic F. Scott Fitzgerald novel set on the North Shore of Nassau County, Lou B. Branchinelli uncovered a relic from the Roaring ’20s in Port Washington.
A demolition of the inside of the former Bow Tie Cinema movie theater on Main Street revealed Beaux Arts-style architectural accoutrements from the old Beacon Theater that had been hiding underneath.
Carved columns. Original paintings. Brown curtains along the walls. A cartouche with a lion above the stage. A ceiling medallion. An orchestra pit. When the building was transformed into a movie theater decades ago, the owners did not destroy the previous layout — they simply built over it.
An original painting and columns from the old Beacon Theater discovered during the demolition process. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Branchinelli, owner of Beacon LLC, had planned to channel the spirit of the old Beacon, a glitzy entertainment venue that opened in 1927, in the construction of the new $15 million Beacon Theater of Long Island. The venue is expected to open in 2026 as a dinner theater that will host comedy shows, concerts, weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs and more.
A Beacon below the Bowtie
- When developers demolished the inside of the former Bow Tie Cinema, historic accoutrements revealed themselves.
- The Bow Tie Cinema was built over the historic Beacon Theater, which opened in 1927.
- Among the findings: Carved columns, original paintings and brown curtains along the walls. There was also an orchestra pit, a cartouche with a lion above the stage and a ceiling medallion.
But as the old walls came down, Branchinelli realized he could incorporate the historical flourishes of the original Beacon into the building's new iteration.
“It changed the complete design,” Branchinelli said in an interview. “After you see it like this, you want to keep as much as you can. So we had to figure out, OK, how do you restore that? How do you restore that?”
Design plans reworked
The mother-daughter Huntington-based design team of Gail Cipriano and Taylor Giamanco are working on new floor plans to reflect the discoveries.
"Our initial concept kind of had this vibe, but now, [with] the original architecture being there, we're going to pivot our floor plan to respect it," Cipriano said in an interview.
Demolition of the former movie theater began in January, after the Town of North Hempstead's Board of Zoning Appeals approved the project in November. The demolition should be done by the end of May, Branchinelli said.
The next phase — restoring the old architectural elements and plastering the walls — is expected to start shortly after that.
The demolition also offered the team a better understanding of the room's space.
The Bow Tie Cinema closed in 2018. When the crew tore down the two movie theaters on the top floor, revealing what was the original theater's mezzanine, Branchinelli discovered a clear sight line from that level to the stage.
That floor, which was supposed to include a private room and the kitchen, will now feature additional seating for guests.
"The line of sight from the top to the bottom ... exists. We didn't know if it existed," Branchinelli said. "We had to take down the walls in order to really see it."
The room is also more open than the team initially expected. Leyalanny Mata, a Port Washington resident and the project’s community development consultant, said the vast space will allow the building to host more types of events, like fashion shows, yoga retreats and cooking demonstrations.
"The only way for us to honor it, and keep it as what it is, and not have another multiplex come here in 20 years to try to buy out, is to have the versatility," Mata said.
Leyalanny Mata, the project’s community development consultant, with owner Lou B. Branchinelli. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Can't 'fake it'
Branchinelli, who has worked in the entertainment world for decades, said he's noticed a trend in recent years of people craving entertainment reminiscent of a bygone area — both in terms of architecture and experience.
"The idea of going back to when times were beautiful and classy is something that I think people are longing for," Mata said. "They're finding it in some places, but there's nothing like that on Long Island."
The modern entertainment experience, Mata said, has become impersonal: Customers order meals and drinks on QR codes, and are then rushed away from their table. The new Beacon will look to channel a time when "you actually spoke to your waiter and had a conversation with them," she said.
Part of the appeal of the new Beacon, Branchinelli hopes, will be that it won't just feel like it's from a different time. Much of it actually is.
"It doesn't work when you fake it," he said, sitting on a railing in the mezzanine. "To see a room that is really history right in front of you ... is incredible."
Joshua Needelman covers the Town of North Hempstead for Newsday. A Long Island native and University of Maryland graduate, his work has appeared in publications including The New York Times and The Washington Post.
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