The Bellevue Apartments Nee The Bellevue Theatre

by Charles McGuigan 09.2024

Contractors worked tirelessly and meticulously to preserve and to repurpose the old movie theatre—longtime home to Samis Grotto—on MacArthur Avenue in Bellevue, and on October 1st the job will finally be completed down to the finest detail. 

This former movie house now includes both apartments and commercial spaces. On the first floor there are three retail spaces as well as one small two-bedroom apartment. Maven Theory, which offers “handmade, luxury fragrances and candles,” has already leased one of the retail spots. The second and third floors will house a total of five one-bedroom and four two-bedroom townhouse-style apartments, so each apartment will have an upstairs and downstairs.  Apartments will rent from between about $1600 and $2200 a month

Back in 2023, Ben Admanson and Alex Griffith purchased the old theatre for $300,00, then hired Bruce Shirley, a Bellevue resident, as architect for the project. The original cost for this extremely ambitious restoration was about $1.2 million, though that cost rose significantly. 

In addition to preserving the unique Art Deco facade, the new owners created a large brick-enclosed patio area that extends out to the sidewalk. According to Alex, they would like to see a retailer rent a space on the first floor that would sell ice cream when its hot, and warm drinks in the cooler months, utilizing the seating area along the sidewalk.

Part of the renovation also included a complete rebuilding of the marquee, which may eventually be painted with a mural, Alex said. 

The Bellevue has a long and storied past. It opened with the screening of “Mountain Music” in the late summer of 1937 when MacArthur Avenue was still called Rappahannock Avenue. The architect was Henry Carl Messerschmidt, who also designed the Lee Theater on West Grace Street in the Fan District.

As the story goes, Shirley MacLaine and her younger brother Warren Beatty saw their first motion picture at The Bellevue, which was just a couple short blocks from their American Foursquare home in the 3900 block of Fauquier Avenue. After watching that first movie there, the young Shirley MacLaine supposedly decided to become an actress.

For a couple decades it was a popular neighborhood movie theater, and then in the late 1950s it became home to another form of entertainment altogether. For a number of years, Virginia’s version of the Grand Ole Opry was broadcast live from The Bellevue. After Sunshine Sue retired as host of the Old Dominion Barn Dance in 1957, the show was renamed the New Dominion Barn Dance and its home was moved from the Lyric Theater in downtown Richmond to The Bellevue on the Northside. Among those who performed on its stage were Buck Owens, Porter Wagner, Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Jr., Johnny Cash, June Carter, and a very young Willie Nelson.  Until very recently there was a massive hand-painted plywood backdrop for that show that stood just behind the curtains on the stage of Samis Grotto. But it was nowhere to be found after the theatre was sold.