By By Anna Sharpe
Copyright postandcourier
SULLIVAN’S ISLAND — A 1930’s-era movie theater will get its sequel as one luxury home after sitting vacant for decades.
Plans to reimagine the Old Post Theatre on Middle Street were given preliminary approval Sept. 17 by the town’s design review board—pending a closer look at the windows and other exterior elements.
The theater is where officers stationed at Fort Moultrie once gathered to watch movies and plays. It will become a six-bedroom luxury home complete with eight bathrooms, a pool, and of course, a screening room.
“We’re not doing our jobs if you still can’t watch the movies in here,” said Anthony Cissell of Cissell Design Studio, the lead architect on the redesign.
Despite being largely empty since the 1970s, remnants of the nearly century-old movie house signal its previous use.
Still stuck on the glass of a once-upon-a-time ticket booth are prices for the flicks: $1 for adults and 50 cents for children. Swinging porthole doors lead into the former auditorium. A formal proscenium, which housed a screen and stage at one time, still stands, now with a backdrop of exposed brick. On sunny days, light peeks in between a few of the aging masonry.
The property is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, part of the Fort Moultrie Quartermaster Historic District. A handful of brick buildings near the fort make up the district, built between 1900 and 1930 for the growing military presence on the island.
Alongside the theater, buildings that house a recreational club for non-commissioned officers, a storehouse for the fort’s commissary and barracks also make up the surrounding historic district.
