The Mahaiwe Theatre
Near Great Barrington, Massachusetts
Just off Main Street stands the Mahaiwe, one of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the country. It opened its doors on the twenty sixth of September, nineteen oh five, with a musical comedy called Happyland, and in its early years the stage welcomed vaudeville acts, touring companies, and even the bandleader John Philip Sousa. The building was designed by the architect Joseph McArthur Vance as part of a grand three story block of brick and marble, and it seated about one thousand patrons.
Its name comes from a Mahican word meaning the place downstream, a nod to the Housatonic River that flows through town. As entertainment changed, so did the Mahaiwe. Silent films arrived around nineteen fourteen, talking pictures by the end of the nineteen twenties, and for much of the twentieth century it ran as a movie house.
By the early two thousands the historic theater was carefully restored and reborn as the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. Today it hosts concerts, dance, opera, film, and live broadcasts, a beloved cultural anchor for the southern Berkshires. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it remains a rare survivor from the golden age of the American theater.
