A Centennial December on Potomac Avenue

In 1982, the Hollywood Theater lost its marquee when Potomac Avenue was widened. Six years later, the theater closed. This fall, the same building held a 100th birthday party, and guests came in 1920s clothes. A few doors away, a former vintage store has become the second storefront of a pizzeria that started in Mt. Lebanon.

Dormont's 2026 holiday season is built around a 1920s commercial street whose storefronts and theater are working again. Several dates on this year's calendar fall on the blocks that grew up with the borough.

The street the tunnels built

The Hollywood opened in September 1926 as a 700-seat movie house on Potomac Avenue. The Liberty Tunnels had opened two years earlier, and the borough was in a construction boom. John Cunningham, president of the Dormont Historical Society, described that period to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: "West Liberty Avenue and Potomac were our two main commercial streets, and they mushroomed just like the surrounding residential neighborhoods did."

At its peak, Dormont had three movie theaters running at once. Pittsburgh architect Charles R. Geisler designed the Hollywood's original building with two storefronts and a bowling alley in the basement. Its slogan was "Where the moon and stars shine." That mix of a theater, small shops and a reason to stay out after dark is still how Potomac Avenue works in December.

A theater that kept coming back

The Hollywood's century has been anything but steady. The Post-Gazette's anniversary history includes these turns:

• 1930: Warner Bros. Pictures bought the theater for a reported $200,000. It closed in the early Depression years and reopened in November 1934 with sound.
• 1948: The building was gutted and rebuilt with Art Deco touches. The bowling alley and storefronts were removed and seating grew past 1,000. It reopened with Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope," starring Jimmy Stewart, who was born in Indiana, Pa.
• 1988 to 2007: It closed, reopened, changed operators, closed again, and then reopened under the Bradley Center.
• 2009: Volunteers formed the nonprofit Friends of the Hollywood Theater. Its first screening was "The Philadelphia Story."
• 2018: The Theatre Historical Society of America bought the building. By 2023, it was shuttered again.

Row House Cinemas took over the former Hollywood in September 2023 and renamed it Row House Hollywood. Co-owner Brian Mendelssohn runs it as a second location alongside the original Row House in Lawrenceville. It reopened on Nov. 6, 2025, with Fritz Lang's 1927 film "Metropolis." That film also inspired the renovation. Mendelssohn plans a curved ceiling that shifts through sunset colors before stars appear overhead, a nod to the theater's old slogan.

The main auditorium now seats 389. A 46-seat second room hosts documentaries, private screenings and film club events. The theater projects digital, 35mm and 70mm film. Mendelssohn has also described plans for a bar, private karaoke rooms and a bigger arcade, so people could visit even without seeing a movie.

His view of what a neighborhood theater is for fits the season. "To me, what makes a movie theater special isn't luxury," he told the Post-Gazette. "The excitement and the reason why you're willing to spend money going to a movie theater, in my opinion, is the communal experience."

Two holiday-week screenings already on the Row House Hollywood special events page put that idea to work:

• "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," Wednesday, Nov. 25, 7 p.m., $13. It's the night before Thanksgiving, and staff will hand out airplane snacks partway through the movie.
• "Lord of the Rings" on 35mm, Nov. 27 to Dec. 3. The trilogy screens Nov. 27 through 29 and again Dec. 2 and 3. That fills the long Thanksgiving weekend and the week after. The schedule is on the theater's film series page.

The theater also has a Holiday Sing Alongs page for its seasonal series.

Second storefronts, again

The 1948 rebuild took away the Hollywood's storefronts. This year, one Potomac Avenue business added one. Anthony Badamo started Pizza Badamo in Mt. Lebanon in 2010. He moved the pizzeria to Dormont in 2023. In February 2026, he began turning the former vintage store next door into a sandwich shop and market. Behind the two separate storefronts is a shared prep area with a large dough room, now zoned as a commissary kitchen, and a new bread oven.

TribLive reported in mid-October that Badamo's Family is open at 1511 Potomac Ave. It sells a dozen sandwiches on house-baked Badamo's bread, plus specialty groceries such as imported Italian sodas. A refrigerated case holds house-made meatballs, dips, ranch dressing and soups. Fresh rolls and focaccia are sold to take home. NEXTpittsburgh's October restaurant roundup also lists the shop and its baked goods and pantry items.

Holiday hosts will be most interested in the bread. When the Post-Gazette previewed the project in July, Badamo planned hoagie rolls, focaccia, soft dinner rolls, Sicilian mafalda rolls and a classic rustic table loaf. He also told the paper why he expanded: "Pizza and bread continue to get bigger and bigger in Pittsburgh. People are jumping in with additions that expand their business with something that's in the same general playing field."

The calendar, Thanksgiving week through mid-December

With a working theater and an extra storefront, the borough calendar has more on these blocks to build around. Here is the season by date:

Small Business Saturday is official here. Borough Resolution 2026-19 names Saturday, Nov. 28, 2026, as Small Business Saturday and urges support for local merchants during the holiday season. It falls the same weekend as the first "Lord of the Rings" screenings, so lunch at Badamo's Family and a matinee are both on Potomac Avenue.

The Hillsdale Park tree lighting was approved at the Oct. 19 council meeting. Council set aside $2,700 in public-good funds to hire a service to light the large tree in the corner of Hillsdale Park. The lighting runs from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4. Council called it the evening before Home for the Holidays. The schedule for Saturday's Home for the Holidays will be on the Borough of Dormont events page.

The South Hills Lights Chanukah Festival is on the borough calendar for Sunday, Dec. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. Updates are on the borough's event listing.

The Dormont Library Holiday House Tour wraps up the season on Dec. 13, from 3 to 7 p.m. The library is asking residents to open their homes for the tour. To volunteer a house or get tour details, call 412-531-8754 or email [email protected], as listed on the library's announcement.

Potomac Avenue's lights may change too. At the same Oct. 19 council meeting, council looked at replacing the streetlights with help from a rebate program. Members didn't like the proposed fixture design, so the purchase was tabled.

I grew up one borough over, and Pizza Badamo started in Mt. Lebanon, so seeing it expand on Potomac Avenue feels a little like watching a neighbor do well. If you'd like to talk about life near these blocks, whether you're settling in or thinking ahead to a move, I'm happy to meet for coffee and a roll from 1511 Potomac Ave. Cindy McVerry is always glad to help. Let's Connect.