Flowers, antiques, and decorative accessories bedeck one of downtown’s recent retailers which occupies a choice spot in the heart of Main Street’s 400 block, home between the two world wars to the city’s renowned Broadway Theatre. It was one of nearly a dozen such houses for vaudeville and the silver screen that rose downtown between World War I to the Depression. The rendering above (inset) suggests the flavor of its theatrical Mediterranean styling, designed by an unknown architect for the site cleared by the devastating fire of January 1920 which destroyed the old (1901) Masonic Temple along with the rest of the 400 block.

Following a late 1930s fire in the Broadway, Leonard Lea renovated the theater, complete with an upstairs lounge and balcony for patrons. During the building’s years as a motion picture house, both the Broadway and the Lea sported elaborate neon signs. 

For two decades after the Lea closed in the mid 1960s, the space was home to the Eleanor Shop, a women’s apparel retailer. From the mid 1980s until earlier this year, the structure remained mostly vacant. 

Only a few months after taking possession of the building last year, Carolyn M. Cobb breathed new life into the former theater, adapting its space for her florist, antiques and accessories shop. It is ironic that in moving to this space from old north Danville, the florist sold her former shop at 629 North Main to developers who now are resurrecting the historic North Theatre (1947) as a performance and arts venue set to open in January 2005.