Gem Theater

The Gem, located right off Main Street, is within walking distance of most Cannon Mill Village in Kannapolis, usually one or two blocks away from any house in the village. One of the oldest, currently operating, single screen theaters in the United States, the theater was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2019. Built in an Art Décor style, the Gem Theater lights up downtown Kannapolis with its large, vertically oriented neon sign, and brass plated ornamental furnishings that harken back to a long-gone era of architectural design.

As a single screen, first run theater, the Gem was often packed with eager movie-goers, ready for a break from mill work, as well as their families. The theater did not only show movies to visitors but also has a large stage, constructed for stage performances in addition to films. The Gem’s website claims that often, movies would show after stage performances to offer entertainment to mill workers who had to work the 2nd shift late into the night.[1] Movie theaters in general were a vital part of many mill villages, and Kannapolis was no exception. In Like A Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, an excellent book about early mill village life, the authors write that the theater became the centerpiece of village entertainment across the south.[2]

Kannapolis had four theaters built before the 1950s to serve the mill workers and their families. The Gem, being the oldest, is the only one still active, and one of three still standing. The Palace Theater, built in 1938 still stands on 540 East C Street, across from George W. Carver Elementary school, but serves as a funeral home today. The Swanee Theater sits near the new Atrium Ballpark, at 201 West Avenue, but is abandoned. When viewing the Swanee, and walking a block to the Gem, the difference in scale between the two theaters is readily apparent. The Gem theater has nearly double the number of seats compared to what the Swanee had, which was the second largest theater in the town. Truly, the Gem Theater lives up to its name, serving as the gem of downtown Kannapolis, offering a nostalgic movie experience.  

[1] “The History of the Gem.” History - Gem Theatre - The Showplace of Kannapolis, North Carolina. Accessed December 10, 2020. https://gem-theatre.com/about/history.

[2] Christopher B. Daly, Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, Mary Murphy Lu Ann Jones, and James Korstad, Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1987), 257.