Polar Theater
Before this building became Polaris K-12, it was the Polar Theater. This site is dedicated to the old theater, where articles, documents, memories and pictures about the theater are shared. Please feel free to browse this site as there are many things to be seen. This site is still being worked on, so if you have anything such as photos, articles, or memories about the Polar Theater, please contact us and we will try to post it.
There are six pages about the Polar Theater, including this one. Other pages include Newspaper Articles, Photo Galleries, Building Documents. There is also another page dedicated to the memories of people who have gone to the theater. Contact information is also listed on a separate page.
Enjoy!
-Ty Wardell
Brief History
The Polar Theater was opened in July 22 of 1971. It became the very first theater in Anchorage to have two large cinema rooms. The first name of the building was the Polar Twin Theater, and in the movie section of the newspaper, it would always list the Polar Twin Theater as Polar I and Polar II, which are the two large theater rooms. In one theater, the newest movies would be playing. In the other, action or horror movies would be playing. In the beginning, the Polar Twin Theater was the hot spot movie-goers to see the newest movies. There would always be long lines in front of the building. It would sometimes take three hours just waiting to get into the theater to watch new movies such as “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back”. Later, the Polar Twin Theater became the Polar Tri-Cinemas when one of the theaters was split into two, thus having three theaters total. The first owner of the theater was Lathrop Company. In 1975, Lathrop sold the theater to Wometco. In 1980, Wometco sold it to Luxury. Then in 1990, Luxury sold it to Act III. In the 1990’s, the Polar Tri-Cinemas became less of an attraction since other newer theaters were being installed around Anchorage. Act III tried turning the theater into a building of foreign and art films, but eventually nobody went to the place anymore. In 1994, the Anchorage School District bought the Polar Theater from Act III to make way for a new open optional school, which would be named Polaris K-12. Some parts of the building were redecorated, like one of large theater rooms was transformed into multiple classrooms. The outside of the building was no longer red, but rather blue. Hallways were installed along with stairs, a second floor, and a library. The school was open optional for grades kindergarten through 12th grade. More and more students attended the school, and in 2005, the building was redecorated to make way for more classrooms, a gym, a larger library, a new office, and so much more. Many parts of the old building were gone, but the two large rooms of the old theater still remained within the structure of the building. Parts of the theater still remain in the new school. Those who have been to the Polar Theater may notice it when they step inside of Polaris K-12. Even though it was closed down a long time ago, the building of the Polar Theater still lives today.
Note: If you are using Internet Explorer, you may find that the first picture of each page are spaced far down the page. If you use Firefox, you will not encounter this error. Sorry for this problem. We are currently trying to fix it.