A movie house with a bit of history in the hamlet of Inlet, on Fourth Lake in the Central Adirondacks, is being torn down.



Tamarack Cafe and Movie House is described by Adirondack historians as the first Quonset-type movie theater in the United States. It dates to 1926.



The owners, Brandon DiMartino and his wife, Megan, say they plan to build a video arcade, miniature golf course and restaurant on the site. Brandon said he hopes the project will be finished by next summer.



The cafe, a popular spot for breakfast in the area, will not be affected, Brandon explained. It's a separate building connected to the theater by a hallway.



Tamarack Movie House has 250 seats, according to Norman Keim's book, "Our Movie Houses" of 2008. It has one screen. Tickets are $3 for adults. The movie house was open July and August.



Brandon explained several economic pressures contributed to his decision to demolish the theater, which has been a landmark in the Adirondacks since the 1920s.



One was the trend in the movie business these days to the digital film format. Equipment for the changeover is very expensive for a small, independent, an estimated $50,000 to $70,000. The owner said he's been told the large chains are given a deal on the transition that a small theater is shut out of.



Another challenge for the Inlet movie house is that business has been declining over the past six years.



"It's been a downward trend," according to Brandon, who only opens the theater in the two months in the middle of summer. He tried several experiments, such as opening earlier in the season and closing later and investing in new projection equipment "but those things didn't work."



The Tamarack showed its last picture show over Labor Day Weekend.



Running the theater, and the restaurant, was pretty much of a family operation; Brandon running the projector, his dad, Joe DiMartino, handling the concession stand, while someone helped out selling tickets.



Megan and Brandon bought the theater in 1995. At that time, it was called The Gaiety.



Over time, the business has had several owners, including Mendel Schulman and Jacob Reatstone, both of Utica. The theater burned in 1926 and during the winter of 1942, the roof collapsed. The next summer, according to Inlet historians, the movie house operated as "an open air theater."



Brandon said he's lived in Inlet most of his life, coming to the community in the fourth grade. He sold real estate and managed a cafe in Rochester, his hometown.



The DiMartinos are in the cafe's kitchen every day, serving an average 600 meals a day in the summer.



Brandon said the theater was given a reinforced steel frame in the recent past. The building is 80 percent metal, which he's sold to a recycling company in Utica, hoping to offset the expense of rebuilding.



He told The Weekly Adirondack newspaper "we're excited. We will be filling a void with something that's missing in Inlet. It's gotten busier in town; there seems to be more synergy between the businesses."





Rail City memories

Katherine Martin McClure lives in Fort Pierce, Fla., but she grew up in Syracuse and spent many summer weekends at Sandy Pond, where the Groman family (Stanley, Sr. who owned Rail City) had their camps. A special friend was Susan, a niece of Stan's. I wrote about Rail City's decline last Sunday.



"Every day we would go to the City and ride the train, walk though the museum and do our favorite thing, ride the rail car," Kathy recalled in an e-mail. "We would pump it so fast it would scare us. Half way around the tracks, the train ride would stop and people could get off to go see the Green Monkey.



"The monkey was in a box and people would cautiously approach it and open the lid slowly, look in and SURPRISE, you were looking at yourself in a mirror at the bottom of the box.



"In the museum we would examine the old pictures of famous outlaws who were laid out in their coffins and marvel at the spectacle. We would climb the water tower and look out to Lake Ontario.



"What a way to spend so many summers."



Dick Case writes Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. Reach him at 470-2254, or by e-mail, dcase@syracuse.com.