History of the Bernardsville Cinema

A view down Mine Brook Road in 1954. The Liberty Theater is on the right.
Picture courtesy of The Bernardsville Historic Preservation Advisory Committee (HPAC) and Friends of Historic Bernardsville (FHB). 

Our charming, quaint downtown theater building was built in 1910 by Frank Allen.  Mr. Allen was an important developer of the Borough's downtown at the turn of the 20th century.  Upon his death, his daughter, Dr. Anna Allen inherited all of his property.  Just prior to her death in 1983, all her downtown property was sold by her trust to the Olcott Square Corporation, which retains ownership of the cinema building to this day.

In 1913, the original cavernous 500 seat theater was opened as the Columbus Theater and operated by Joseph DeBelloni.  At that time, it was a vaudeville theater with a balcony above the 400 seat main floor and featured live performances.  The business was sold in 1918 to Harry Miller who patriotically renamed it the Liberty Theater.  The balcony was eliminated and a second floor motion picture projection room took its place.   In 1920, silent films replaced vaudeville acts and were shown with dramatic piano accompaniment to enhance the experience until 1929 when "talkies" came in. 

The theater has been in continuous operation since its opening with little change to the exterior.  In order to keep up with the changing times, the interior of the grand old theater was converted to a triplex theater in the early 1990's by Clearview Cinema Corporation, a division of Cablevision.  In 2013, Clearview sold the theater to BowTie Cinemas, which continued to run the business until 2019 when Bernardsville Cinema, LLC, the current operator, took over its management.  In 2020, the 110 year old building celebrated its 100th anniversary as a continuously run motion picture theater.  Today, we are a totally independent theater with no chain affiliation.