Historic Roxy Theater in Holbrook has a new owner

The Roxy Theater along Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona, landed a new owner earlier this year who pledges to retain its history.

Haley Young, a Holbrook native who lives in Phoenix, bought the single-screen venue in January from Richard and Stacy Nowell, who had owned it since 2013.

Young’s brother and sister-in-law, who also live in Holbrook, are the theater’s managers, though Young said she travels back to her hometown on the weekends.

The Nowells, knowing Young was a movie buff, had asked her for several years whether she was interested in buying the theater. Once Young recently retired as a respiratory therapist, she began to take that offer seriously.

Young said she plans to update the Roxy’s seats and flooring, but little else.

“My plan is to keep it as it is,” she said in a telephone interview. “I don’t want to take away the history.”

She said she found an original film projector in storage. She wants to put that and other historic items on display in the lobby.

Young said the second floor of the building is used as an apartment. This summer, she’d like to renovate it and turn it into an Airbnb site.

She said many Route 66 fans clamor to see a movie in a historic venue such as the Roxy. Young, noting the upswing in nearby Winslow’s downtown in recent years because of Route 66, said she hopes the Roxy can be an impetus for Holbrook’s revival, too.

“I want to help Holbrook get to that place,” she summarized.

The Roxy opened at 153 W. Hopi Drive (aka Route 66) in 1954. Young said another Roxy Theater was built down the street during the 1930s, but it burned down. The owners rebuilt at the current site.

According to Cinema Treasures, “The Roxy Theater can seat 327 and it is located on Hopi Drive. The Roxy Theater closed in 1994, but reopened in 2003 after a renovation project.”

(Image of the Roxy Theater in Holbrook, Arizona, via its Facebook page)