4751 West Vernor Highway
Stratford Theatre, Metropolitan Outreach Center, Mi Casa A Tu Casa Discount
I enjoy taking photographs of old theatres; however, combing through thousands of pages in the newspaper archives referencing showtimes is real work. Still, I’ve always been curious about this one, so it was interesting to research.
In 1915, a group of businesspeople sought investors to build a new theatre on Dix Highway in Southwest Detroit. By the following year, it would be complete, and the Stratford Theatre opened on March 11, 1916. Dubbed a ‘Photo Playhouse’ in the Detroit Free Press, the moving picture theater had a capacity of 1,200 and a stage complete with a pipe organ. Fred A. Schneider was the president of the company.
Like many businesses that have been heavily commercialized over the past 100 years, neighborhood theatres were institutions that lived and died by the patronage of the community that surrounded them. This led them to be active in their neighborhoods, letting community groups use their spaces and allowing children a place to go when they weren’t in school or working. There were theatres like this in every Detroit neighborhood, and the Stratford is a good example of third spaces that no longer exist in most Detroit communities.
In 1925, Dix was renamed Vernor after longtime city councilman James Vernor. In addition to serving the City of Detroit, he invented Vernor’s Ginger Ale.
In 1932, Roy Campbell, a worker at the Stratford Theatre, stopped his car down the block from the theater after a man flashed a badge that indicated he was a Detroit Police Officer. However, he soon had a pistol pushed up against his chest and was told to drive back to the theatre he had just closed. The bandit forced him inside, stole $345 from the safe, and told him to leave. The thief was later identified when caught for another robbery.
By the 1930s, an annual event that allowed kids to see a free matinee was in full swing. 1,200 kids from the Clark Park neighborhood were able to come in and see a movie on the house thanks to a partnership between Gerald Schneider, one of the owners, and Frank Iler of the Department of Recreation.
The 1930s also saw the theatre upgraded, and it may have reached a peak capacity of 1,400 patrons at this time, but I can’t be certain. Into the 1940s, the theatre was still operated by the Schneider family.
On Tuesday, April 27, 1948, Fred. A Schneider died. The founder and president, Schneider was a boyhood friend and neighbor to Henry Ford. He had owned and operated the Stratford Theatre for over 30 years. I’m not sure when the family sold the theatre.
In the early to mid-1960s, there were a few advertisements for ‘Adult Entertainment’ flicks. I don’t think that these were anything too raunchy; however, this was how many theatres could stay afloat in this era of Detroit and the United States. The Stratford was still showing kids' movies at the time, but it would soon transition to flicks that would leave some viewers lost in translation.
By 1966, the Stratford Theatre had stopped showing films in English and had transitioned to exclusively Spanish-speaking films. The last mention of a movie in English I’ve found was in 1964. The Detroit Free Press called it one of the last movie houses devoted to showing flicks in a different language, which was interesting, as it had only started a few years prior. It also described Mexican films as “not often very great,” which is typical for the journalism I’ve found when describing non-white cultures over the years in the paper. There may have been live shows at the theater in the 1960s, too, but they appear to have been few and far between.
In 1967, the Stratford was showing Hotel Alojamiento, a flick for adults only, with which the advertisement stated that “you don’t have to know Spanish to enjoy it.” Again, this wasn’t anything too raunchy. On July 21, 1971, the theatre was home to a professional wrestling match, “Direct from Mexico,” that saw many advertisements in the paper. Throughout the 1970s, the theater was still operational but closed sometime before the 1980s came to a close.
In the 1980s, there were a few mentions of the documentaries and other events at the theatre. The last mention of it that I’ve found online came in 1985.
In 1991, the Metropolitan Outreach Center was incorporated at the state level at the theatre’s address. It was a religious-based non-profit run by Reverend Arthur Ledlie, the pastor at Detroit World Outreach in Redford and the president of Western Storage and Warehouse. Typically, I’ve found that when a non-profit is incorporated and listed at a structure like this, it was already used by a non-profit prior. There isn’t a ton on Reverend Ledlie online; however, a quote from the Detroit Free Press in 1987 made me giggle. According to the piece, the pastor was “drawn to Blockbuster Videos by the large selection, multiple copies, and spacious floor plan that makes browsing more enjoyable.”
The nonprofit held events here, but I’m unsure if mass was ever held here. In 1997, they held a haunted house here, which I imagine would have been neat to experience. That said, I’m not sure what the interior of this theatre looked like then or now. Either way, the nonprofit had gone belly up by the mid-2000s, and a used furniture and odds and ends store had moved into the space in the early 2000s. Despite its fun name, Mi Casa A Tu Casa Discount had closed by 2009.
After that, I think that the structure has sat vacant. It may have operated as a church for a short time. It’s currently listed for sale at $400,000. There isn’t a single interior photograph, which is usually a bad sign. Additionally, a structure on the back portion of the roof appears to have been stripped. Still, most of the exterior seems to be in solid shape, so there’s hope for this structure still.
The area around the Stratford Theatre is densely populated and is one of the areas of the city that might be considered walkable. I’d like to think that a neighborhood movie theatre could be successful here, especially if it were to pair Spanish and English-speaking movies, but I’m not an expert in that field. That said, if it opened, I’d be sure to go!
