The Garden Theatre is located next door to the Bainbridge house (built in 1766), where the Princeton Historical Society is now located. It's named for the rose garden that once occupied the location. The Garden Theatre opened its doors on September 20, 1920, with a showing of “Civilian Clothes,” starring Thomas Meighan. The event also featured a live orchestra with palms and ferns arranged on the
stage. Originally built to accommodate Princeton University’s Triangle Club, the Garden took on a new life as a cinema when Triangle moved to McCarter Theatre in the late '20s. The Garden changed hands several times in the next few decades. In 1937, the Garden Theatre had its first movie theater competition of the Princeton Playhouse, with a seating capacity of 1,200 (twice the Garden's). The Princeton Playhouse was located only a few blocks away on Palmer Square. Unlike the Playhouse, the Garden specialized in showing foreign films. Sameric Corporation ran the theater from 1975 through 1988, turning the facility into the twin-screen Eric Garden Theatre in 1981. The theater had been dark since October 1992 when United Artists, which had been running the theater since 1988, decided it was no longer financially viable. The Theater Management Corporation, which operates neighborhood theaters throughout the Northeast, began leasing and managing the Garden in 1993, after it was purchased by Princeton University. In 2014, Renew Theaters took over management of the theater; the Pennsylvania-based non-profit also oversees three other historic arthouse cinemas. Sources
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/10204
http://www.mocavo.com/Town-Topics-Princeton-Aug-9-200-Volume-Liv/461827/1
http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/00/q3/0803-gardenth.htm
https://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/01/q2/0531-garden.htm
