Credit: Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project

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  • Photo Courtesy of the Cleveland Memory Project

The former Hilliard Square Theater in Lakewood AKA the Westwood Theater may soon face the wrecking ball after standing vacant for the last 25 years and suffering damages from superstorm Sandy last year.

The movie theater, which was built in 1927, has been issued dozens of repair notices over the last few years, including warnings for electrical, plumbing, and plaster problems- among others- and was officially declared a “public nuisance” last September.

Despite numerous attempts to refurbish and save the theater, owner Robert Dobush has conceded it may be time to see the ol’ girl go.

“Right now, we’re in the middle of negotiating the hows and whys and whens, and we’re doing an asbestos survey,” Dobush told Cleveland.com.

City officials initially gave Dobush until the middle of October to either bring the building up to standards or to have it demolished. They’ve since changed their tune and are giving Dobush additional time as long he continues to make progress.

You can read the entire article from the Cleveland.com, here.

This article appears in Nov 6-12, 2013.

Alaina Nutile is the Web Editor who oversees all digital content and social media initiatives for Cleveland Scene Magazine and Detroit Metro Times. Before joining the staff in June 2013, she interned at Business Insider in New York City, and at La Hora in Quito, Ecuador. Alaina is a graduate of Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where she double majored in English and Spanish. Her interests include Japanese food, Breaking Bad, and career development advising.

5 replies on “Lakewood’s Former Hilliard Square Theater May Be Demolished”

  2. I love it when people stand on the sidelines and comment about this kind of thing. Have you seen the building? If it wasn’t pretty, it wouldn’t be there. It’s a disaster, unfortunately. It’s been 25 and no progress on remediation. Time to tear it down.

    And the Detroit theater was a disaster that no one attended anymore. Do I like McDs? Nope. But at least it was zero sum in terms of number of McDs in Lakewood, and a great local organization got to expand into their old building (Nature’s Bin)

  3. What a shame …it was once a magnificent display of architecture at its best .I often told my children growing up how I wish I could buy it and restore it to it former glory

  4. I ride past that old building ALL THE TIME and shake my head at it’s cultivated demise….
    By that I mean the owners let it fall into disrepair so they had no choice BUT to demo/sell for a tidy profit….

    I don’t stand on any sideline…I just call out the shisters from wherever I can see….
    Church of Christ Scientist @ W117 and Clifton anyone?????

  5. When I think of that building all I can think of is Rocky Horror Picture Show and Master Pizza!

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