Firehouse Theater


The Firehouse Theater is the first and only movie theater in Kingston, Washington, a town of 2,000 people across the Puget Sound from Seattle. It is located in a refurbished two-rig firehouse on State Route 104 near the city's ferry terminal. The boutique duo-plex was opened in May 2009 by Craig Smith, a lifelong movie fan, with his life-savings after he closed his movie-rental business. Initially setting out to only feature independent and art house films, Smith realized his independent movie theater needed to also run blockbuster films. He had to upgrade from 35mm movie film to digital requiring new projectors. After going into debt, fans set up a volunteer corps, and a GoFundMe fundraising page to pay down the business loans, and transition into a non-profit corporation., the fund reached over $217,000 with nearly 5,000 donors.

Description

The Firehouse Theater is the first and only movie theater in Kingston. It is located in a refurbished two-rig firehouse on State Route 104, a few blocks from the Kingston Ferry. The firehouse used to be the central station for North Kitsap Fire and Rescue. The theater is split between the lobby and two movie bays in the former two-rig bay firehouse: a 144-seat Main Stage with an extra “cry room” for families with babies and small children; and the smaller 48-seat Back Stage theater.
Prior to co-owning the movie house, Smith ran a video rental store in Kingston. He spent his life savings of $400,000 in 2008 to convert the old firehouse into a theater.

History

The Firehouse Theater was founded in 2008, and opened in May 2009, by Craig Smith, a devoted film fan who invested his family's savings—$500,000 as of February 2020–into the venture, and is often the sole employee, assisted by volunteers in the reconditioned firehouse. Initially setting out to only feature independent and art house films, Smith realized running blockbusters as well was financially beneficial.
Though initially outfitted for 35mm films he was compelled in 2012 to replace the projectors to show modern films from digital hard disk drives on Christie projectors in the independent theater.
A GoFundMe campaign was set up in 2020 by Smith to retire the debt of the digital projectors, and business loans, upgrade the theater's lighting, and finance the transition into a non-profit corporation. Within the first week it had raised almost $6,000, then on the weekend of February 9, 2020, Sunday Morning on CBS News ran a feature on Smith and his theater, within ninety minutes the fund reached $100,000, by February 12 it reached $190,000 with nearly 5,000 donors., the effort has raised over $218,000.