The 35x15' screen was slashed on closing night, shortly after the end of the final feature. The majority of it was cut into smaller pieces and given to staff and friends to be used for home theater.

It took over a week to remove the 800 seats. In the top-left picture, some of the fabric on the side walls has been removed to see whether any of the original murals mentioned in the opening day advertisements still remained underneath. (By the way, this picture was taken in mid-June, after the ventilation system had been off for several weeks, and the air was hot, humid, and stale.) On the right is the auditorium as it appeared before renovation began. I'm told the curvy soffit on the ceiling used to have soft violet light around its perimeter, but we could never find the circuits to turn it on.

The barren auditorium, viewed from the auditorium entrance and from the stage.

The original Beechwold proscenium, stage, and screen frame, uncovered as construction crews stripped the auditorium. If you look closely, you can see a shiny silver coating on the bricks behind the screen frame. I believe this is from a reflective spray coating that went through the perforations in the original screen when it was treated for running 3D pictures.

The remains of the projection booth.

The remains of the restrooms. Notice the blue tile (on the far left) from the original decoration. The gold wallpaper visible in the distance is where the women's restroom used to be. The blue door leads to the stairwell ascending to the projection booth and office.

The lobby, shortly after a demolition bulldozer tore it up- and as it originally appeared.

A patch of the original Beechwold lobby decor, discovered behind a fake wall where the Drexel North concession stand used to be (behind the blue wall in the lobby picture above).

Hoot, Columbus' comics newspaper, mysteriously foresaw the Drexel North's demise when it printed this cartoon on its cover, several weeks before Revco purchased the theater.

The original architecture newly exposed after being walled up since 1974.

The main entrance after bulldozers smashed the box office and glass doors, showing the original poster cases. A Paramount promotional poster of Olivia DeHavilland celebrating her Academy Award in To Each His Own was found in one of these poster cases!

The remains of the Drexel North marquee.

The new Revco store opened on Sunday January 21, 1996.

The new lobby.

The former auditorium.

Epilogue: Revco was bought out by the rival CVS chain less than three years after the new store opened. CVS prefers all of its locations to look identical, so they closed this store not long after acquiring it. The building sat vacant for about two years. Finally, the owner of Columbus Sports Connection, a small fitness center in the adjacent strip mall, signed a lease on the building. As of summer 2003, the Drexel North is now a gym, and the building will likely remain as-is for at least the next 10-15 years.