The October 16, 1915 Moving Picture World mentions a house in Oelwein called the Colonial, recently purchased by a Paul R. Whitney, formerly of Albert Lea, Minnesota. It might be that the purchase didn’t go through at that time, as the June 10, 1916 issue of Motography also said that the Colonial had recently been purchased by Mr. Whitney, who planned extensive improvements.
A church of that era would be fairly likely to have been designed in a Colonial Revival style, which I think increases the chances that it would have been named the Colonial when it was converted into a theater.
This house should be marked as closed but renovating. This article from the Waverly Newspapers Group, published on September 7, 2022, is the most recent I’ve found, and notes that the project had been awarded some three quarters of a million dollars in tax credits.
A locally formed group called Movie Guys LLC which has owned the building since 2018 is in charge of the project, with plans to develop apartments on the upper floor of the building and a restaurant and a movie theater on the ground floor. The project was delayed by the pandemic, but work got underway again in 2021. I haven’t seen details about the size and configuration of the theater, and there is no information about a completion date for it, but the target for completion of the residential portion of the project is by June, 2024.
The Iowa Historical Society’s documentation for this building says its construction began in 1925 and was completed in 1926. The July 3, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News said that “[p]icture fans of Waverly, Iowa, attended the opening of the new Palace Theatre last week.” The May 8 issue of the same journal had said that the theater’s owner, M. H. Haggerman, a local attorney, would not be actively involved in the theater’s management, but had arranged the outfitting of the house through the Exhibitor’s Supply Company of Omaha.
As noted in an earlier comment, the Palace was renamed the Waverly Theatre in 1937, the year it was remodeled with plans by Mortimer Cleveland. Another remodeling took place in 1972, according to the Historical Society’s site inventory form.
The only evidence I’ve found of the Opera House showing movies is its appearance in a couple of issues of the theater industry trade journal Moving Picture World. The first was in the issue of of November 11, 1916. The item, datelined Waverly, Iowa, said “Messers. Plough and Bennett, formerly of Minneapolis, now control the opera house here.”
This house was listed under the name Nichols Theatre in at least six editions of the Cahn guides between 1903 and 1911, but not one of them gives the seating capacity of the house. Each does, however, say that “dates should read Nichols Opera House.” H. G. Nichols is listed as manager, but he appears to have been the owner of the building as well. He was mentioned in some historic publications in connection with the automobile business, and as a director of a local bank. His family was among the earliest settlers of the town. The January 5, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World says that he had disposed of his opera house at Waverly to George Moulds of Dayton, Iowa.
The various editions of Polk’s Iowa directory list the theater as the Waverly Opera House, though H. G. Nichols is listed as manager in some of them.
I didn’t phrase my earlier comment very well, so I think it’s been misunderstood. The Palace Theatre listed in the FDY’s starting in 1926 was the one across the street from this house, at 90 Bremer Avenue, built in 1925-26, now called the Waverly Palace Theatre. The Iowa State Historic Society’s Site Inventory Form for that block says that the new theater in that building was called the Palace by the newspapers while it was under construction, so there was plenty of time for the name to be sent to the FDY in time for the 1926 edition. That house was renamed the Waverly Theatre in 1937, noted in the October 4 issue of Film Daily that year.
What the absence of any other theater name than Palace from FDYs during the period 1926-1937 suggests is that when the Bremer opened in (probably) 1937, its building, despite having appeared on the 1915 Sanborn map with the notation “Moving Pictures,” had probably not been used as a theater at least since the Palace had opened across the street in 1926. I suspect that the theater space had simply been returned to retail use until someone converted it back into a theater in 1937.
As for the original name of the house during the period around 1915, the trade journals offer no clue aside from a mention in 1916 of an Opera House at Waverly, which hardly seems a likely name for a narrow storefront conversion such as this house appeared to be. None of the historic issues of the local newspapers are online, so we probably won’t be coming across any ads for it. I think we’ve reached an impasse, unless someone local manages to dig something up, or one of the newspapers gets digitized and put online.
Here is an item about the first Rosendale Community Theatre, from the January 5, 1918 Moving Picture World:
“Pathe Men Saved the Show at Roesendale. [sic]
“Kansas City, Mo.—The Kansas City Pathe office endeared itself recently to the exhibitors at Roesendale, Mo., as well as to the community. A new house costing about $12,000, owned by the business men of the community, and built as a community center, was about to be opened when it was discovered that there was an operator lacking to run the new power-driven machine. The Pathe office, hearing of this misfortune, sent Morton Van Praag, cashier, and Phillip Smith, bookkeeper, to the rescue. The opening of the big house was accomplished according to the prearranged plans, due to the willingness of the Pathe force.”
In early 1918, several theater industry trade journals, including the January 5 issue of Moving Picture World noted that the new Opera House at Rosendale, Missouri, had recently opened.
The April 12, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal said that “[a] stock company is being organized at Rosendale, Mo., to rebuild the opera house recently destroyed by fire.”
In 1938 and 1939, issues of Boxoffice mentioned an E. L. Lewellyn as a visitor to film row in Kansas City, but never gave the name of Mr. Lewellyn’s theater. The 1938 FDY lists a 400-seat house called the Rosendale Theatre, but it is closed. In 1940, FDY lists the 150-seat Airdome, in 1943 and 1945 a 150-seat house called the Community, and in 1947 and 1950 the Airdome is back again, though with 200 seats in 1947 and 220 in 1950. Small as it was (FDY lists the population as 150) Rosendale had movies at least as late as 1950,even if they were outdoors and probably seasonal.
The NRHP registration form for the Erwin Commercial Historic District says that the building partly occupied by the Peerless Theatre was built in 1903-1906 for the Erwin Mills and housed their company store, among other things. It says that the Peerless occupied the eastern portion of the building from very early in its history, but I’ve found no references to it in early trade publications.
I haven’t checked every year, but the FDY lists only the Palace at Waverly in 1926, 1928, 1929, 1936, and 1937. The house at 107 E. Bremer might have been dark, or maybe not even a theater, for many years.
In 1938 the FDY lists the Palace and a 305-seat house called the Bremer Theatre, which could have been this one. The only mention of the Bremer I’ve found in the trades is in the November 11, 1950 Boxoffice which said the house had suffered a fire “last Sunday” (which would have been November 5) and had been closed for repairs most of the week.
Film Daily of April 5, 1940 said that a new, $50,000 building was being erected at Ebensburg to Replace the Allison Circuit’s Rivoli Theatre, which had been destroyed by a fire some time earlier. A February 17 Boxoffice item about the fire said that the burned theater had been built in 1915 by a Pittsburgh steel mogul named D. E. Park.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Patton, the Star and the Majestic. The earliest mention of the Grand I’ve found is on a list in the August 7, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World. The October 9, 1920 MPW noted that the Grand was being enlarged from 350 to 500 seats. It also says that W. A. Dinsmore was the owner of both the Grand and the Majestic.
After the Vernon Theatre was destroyed by a fire, its site became the location of a small public open space called Fridman Park. It is on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue about 100 feet east of Crawford. Google Maps says it is at 950 Philadelphia, but that’s way off. The businesses across the street are at 910 and 914, so the theater would probably have been in the range of 911-915.
The house seen on the 1923 and 1930 Sanborns at 1002 Philadelphia must have been the one listed in 1926 and 1929 FDYs as the Russell. It’s the only theater listed those years besides Smith’s (which we know was not on Philadelphia Avenue.) The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two houses on Philadelphia Avenue in Barnesboro, the Pastime and the Rex. It also lists two without locations, the Gaiety and the Grand. We have the Grand listed under the town’s modern name of Northern Cambria. Gaiety is still a mystery. Perhaps a missing aka for Smith’s?
At some point, Water Street was renamed 4th Avenue– one of very many annoying street name changes in Austin. As the Paramount Theatre was built on the foundations of the Park Theatre, the address of the Park was probably the same, 125 4th Avenue NE.
This was an Ultra-Vision house, using a system developed by Wil-Kin Theater Services. In time, more than sixty Ultra-Vision theaters were opened, and as far as I know all of them were in the southeast. The system could be used with either 35 or 70mm projectors, but I think most of the houses used 35mm to keep overall costs down. Information about the system is sparse on the Internet, but as near as I can tell it uses dual projectors with their beams sent through an apparatus that blends the images seamlessly on a curved, lenticulated screen. The system was premiered at the Terrace Theater in Asheville, N.C., in 1968.
In what was likely a double listing caused by the name change, both the Cozy and the Unique are listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Puicture Directory.
I’m now doubting the accuracy of the 1966 Daily Herald article that said the Lyric Theatre had become the State Theatre. Both the Lyric and the State are listed in FDYs in 1926 and 1927, and I’ve found the State mentioned in Universal Weekly as far back as April 5, 1924. The Lyric goes back to at least as early as 1914, having been listed in the AMPD that year. In the FDYs, the Lyric and State have wildly different seating capacities (600 and 1,500 respectively, though I suspect the latter is a wild exaggeration.) The 600-seat Lyric is last listed in 1927, and in 1928 a 600-seat Eagle Theatre makes its first appearance. Eagle is thus a likely new name for the Lyric, but State is not.
An Eagle Theatre with 600 seats is listed in the 1928 FDY. This was its first appearance. A 600-seat Lyric Theatre listed in the 1927 FDY is no longer listed in 1928. According to a 1966 article in the Austin Daily Herald the Lyric became the State, but checking the FDYs from the period, I find both the Lyric and the State listed in both the 1926 and the 1927 editions. I’ve found the State mentioned in Universal Weekly as early as April 5, 1924, so the Lyric probably didn’t become the State. More likely it became the Eagle in 1927 or very early 1928. The Lyric was one of at least six movie houses operating in Austin in 1914.
The much lower seating capacity listed in FDY in 1940 (and 1938) could have been the result of the house closing a balcony, but given that the manager was claiming 500 seats in 1940, I’m inclined to attribute the lower number to FDY’s notorious inaccuracy when it comes to seating capacities.
The Eagle is last listed in the 1942 FDY, with 250 seats. A 250-seat house called the Rex first appears in the 1943 edition, and I suspect a name change. But then the 233-seat Eagle reappears in the 1949 FDY and there is no Rex listed, so it looks like the name might have been changed back.
This house might have been called the Idle Hour Theatre. An interesting item appeared in the August 9, 1913 issue of Motography, which said that W. A. Matlack, operator of the Idle Hour Theatre at New Hampton, had leased the Opera House and would present a season of plays, while continuing to show movies at the Idle Hour.
The only theater listed at New Hampton in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory was the Idle Hour, and it was listed as being on Main Street. The December 2, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Idle Hour theater has been remodeled and the interior redecorated.” The house was still in operation in 1918, when the May 4 MPW said it had been taken over by a new owner. That’s the latest mention of the Idle Hour I’ve been able to find. In 1917 the new Fireman’s Theatre opened and began showing movies in November, and it seems unlikely that any competitors would have lasted long.
As for the Opera House, it had 400 seats according to a 1908 Iowa business directory, which listed it as one of two theaters in New Hampton, the other being the 3,000-seat Fireman’s Auditorium. The Fireman’s Theatre opened in 1917 was the second big theater built by the New Hampton Fire Department. The first opened in 1898, as part of the department’s new headquarters. It doesn’t seem to have harmed business at the Opera House, though, as that venue continued to be mentioned in The Billboard and The New York Clipper into the 1910s. The Opera House must have had a flat floor , though, as the local high school’s basketball games were held there for many years.
This was the second large theater built by the New Hampton Fire Department. The first was a 3,000-seat auditorium on the upper floors of the department’s new headquarters, a huge, Romanesque Revival pile built in 1898. It was apparently never used as a movie theater, but this second hall, opened in 1917, was equipped as a movie theater from very early in its history.
A notice that the Fireman’s Hall had begun operating as a full time movie theater appeared in the November 3, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World. The hall had opened earlier that year with live performances.
The Firemen’s Theatre closed as a movie house in 1984, but reopened in 1987 as a live venue. It was destroyed by an arson fire not too long after.
The Barthel Opera House building was destroyed by a fire that started in the early morning hours of October 22, 2007. At the time of its destruction it was occupied by a restaurant called Wild Willy’s Pizza Saloon. It’s likely that the Barthell was equipped to show movies from the time of its construction, as a notice that the house was nearing completion appeared in the July 24, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World. Still, trade journal mentions of Waukon after that are invariably about the Cota (or Cote) Theatre, so the Barthell was probably never the town’s most important movie venue.
I don’t think we can trust the NRHP’s date of c 1900 for this building. The historic district’s nomination form has a number of questionable claims.
More significantly, several trade journals from 1921 note the construction of a new theater on Bridge Street in Shinnston for a Miss Lynne Monroe. The November 4th issue of Variety even gives the name Columbia Theatre, and says that ground had been broken for the 300-seat house, which was expected to be completed before the end of December. Several journals note that the 30x80 foot brick and tile building had been designed by Clarksburg architect J. E. (John Edward) Wood.
Nessa is correct that the photos here depict the Rice Theatre, which operated from 1948 to 1957. It was described in various trade journals as an upstairs theater with a large store on the ground floor.
So far I’ve been unable to find any historic references to a house called the Colonial Theatre at Shinnston. While searching I’ve found a couple of stray listings: A Lyric Theatre is listed in FDYs from 1927, ‘28 and '29, no seating capacity listed, and a 400-seat Paramount Theatre is listed in 1931 only. Neither of these names appear to be aka’s for other known houses, as the Columbia, Princess and Rex continue to be listed as well.
Multiple sources indicate that this house at 314 Pike Street was the second of its name in Shinnston. The earlier Princess, in operation by 1921, was across the street at 323 Pike. The new theater opened in 1940, the same year the town’s first Rex Theatre was burned out of the former Opera House on Walnut Street. The Princess and Rex had been under the same ownership, and for a while the old Princess went by the name Princess-Rex, though it later returned to being simply the Rex. CinemaTour says that the Princess operated at its new location from 1940 until 1961. A book called Around Shinnston says that a furniture store had moved into the Princess building by 1964, so 1961 is likely right as the closing date.
The October 16, 1915 Moving Picture World mentions a house in Oelwein called the Colonial, recently purchased by a Paul R. Whitney, formerly of Albert Lea, Minnesota. It might be that the purchase didn’t go through at that time, as the June 10, 1916 issue of Motography also said that the Colonial had recently been purchased by Mr. Whitney, who planned extensive improvements.
A church of that era would be fairly likely to have been designed in a Colonial Revival style, which I think increases the chances that it would have been named the Colonial when it was converted into a theater.
Damn. I’ve lived in Butte County since 1986 and this is the first I’ve heard of this theater.
This house should be marked as closed but renovating. This article from the Waverly Newspapers Group, published on September 7, 2022, is the most recent I’ve found, and notes that the project had been awarded some three quarters of a million dollars in tax credits.
A locally formed group called Movie Guys LLC which has owned the building since 2018 is in charge of the project, with plans to develop apartments on the upper floor of the building and a restaurant and a movie theater on the ground floor. The project was delayed by the pandemic, but work got underway again in 2021. I haven’t seen details about the size and configuration of the theater, and there is no information about a completion date for it, but the target for completion of the residential portion of the project is by June, 2024.
The Iowa Historical Society’s documentation for this building says its construction began in 1925 and was completed in 1926. The July 3, 1926 issue of Motion Picture News said that “[p]icture fans of Waverly, Iowa, attended the opening of the new Palace Theatre last week.” The May 8 issue of the same journal had said that the theater’s owner, M. H. Haggerman, a local attorney, would not be actively involved in the theater’s management, but had arranged the outfitting of the house through the Exhibitor’s Supply Company of Omaha.
As noted in an earlier comment, the Palace was renamed the Waverly Theatre in 1937, the year it was remodeled with plans by Mortimer Cleveland. Another remodeling took place in 1972, according to the Historical Society’s site inventory form.
The only evidence I’ve found of the Opera House showing movies is its appearance in a couple of issues of the theater industry trade journal Moving Picture World. The first was in the issue of of November 11, 1916. The item, datelined Waverly, Iowa, said “Messers. Plough and Bennett, formerly of Minneapolis, now control the opera house here.”
This house was listed under the name Nichols Theatre in at least six editions of the Cahn guides between 1903 and 1911, but not one of them gives the seating capacity of the house. Each does, however, say that “dates should read Nichols Opera House.” H. G. Nichols is listed as manager, but he appears to have been the owner of the building as well. He was mentioned in some historic publications in connection with the automobile business, and as a director of a local bank. His family was among the earliest settlers of the town. The January 5, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World says that he had disposed of his opera house at Waverly to George Moulds of Dayton, Iowa.
The various editions of Polk’s Iowa directory list the theater as the Waverly Opera House, though H. G. Nichols is listed as manager in some of them.
I didn’t phrase my earlier comment very well, so I think it’s been misunderstood. The Palace Theatre listed in the FDY’s starting in 1926 was the one across the street from this house, at 90 Bremer Avenue, built in 1925-26, now called the Waverly Palace Theatre. The Iowa State Historic Society’s Site Inventory Form for that block says that the new theater in that building was called the Palace by the newspapers while it was under construction, so there was plenty of time for the name to be sent to the FDY in time for the 1926 edition. That house was renamed the Waverly Theatre in 1937, noted in the October 4 issue of Film Daily that year.
What the absence of any other theater name than Palace from FDYs during the period 1926-1937 suggests is that when the Bremer opened in (probably) 1937, its building, despite having appeared on the 1915 Sanborn map with the notation “Moving Pictures,” had probably not been used as a theater at least since the Palace had opened across the street in 1926. I suspect that the theater space had simply been returned to retail use until someone converted it back into a theater in 1937.
As for the original name of the house during the period around 1915, the trade journals offer no clue aside from a mention in 1916 of an Opera House at Waverly, which hardly seems a likely name for a narrow storefront conversion such as this house appeared to be. None of the historic issues of the local newspapers are online, so we probably won’t be coming across any ads for it. I think we’ve reached an impasse, unless someone local manages to dig something up, or one of the newspapers gets digitized and put online.
Here is an item about the first Rosendale Community Theatre, from the January 5, 1918 Moving Picture World:
In early 1918, several theater industry trade journals, including the January 5 issue of Moving Picture World noted that the new Opera House at Rosendale, Missouri, had recently opened.
The April 12, 1924 issue of The Reel Journal said that “[a] stock company is being organized at Rosendale, Mo., to rebuild the opera house recently destroyed by fire.”
In 1938 and 1939, issues of Boxoffice mentioned an E. L. Lewellyn as a visitor to film row in Kansas City, but never gave the name of Mr. Lewellyn’s theater. The 1938 FDY lists a 400-seat house called the Rosendale Theatre, but it is closed. In 1940, FDY lists the 150-seat Airdome, in 1943 and 1945 a 150-seat house called the Community, and in 1947 and 1950 the Airdome is back again, though with 200 seats in 1947 and 220 in 1950. Small as it was (FDY lists the population as 150) Rosendale had movies at least as late as 1950,even if they were outdoors and probably seasonal.
The NRHP registration form for the Erwin Commercial Historic District says that the building partly occupied by the Peerless Theatre was built in 1903-1906 for the Erwin Mills and housed their company store, among other things. It says that the Peerless occupied the eastern portion of the building from very early in its history, but I’ve found no references to it in early trade publications.
I haven’t checked every year, but the FDY lists only the Palace at Waverly in 1926, 1928, 1929, 1936, and 1937. The house at 107 E. Bremer might have been dark, or maybe not even a theater, for many years.
In 1938 the FDY lists the Palace and a 305-seat house called the Bremer Theatre, which could have been this one. The only mention of the Bremer I’ve found in the trades is in the November 11, 1950 Boxoffice which said the house had suffered a fire “last Sunday” (which would have been November 5) and had been closed for repairs most of the week.
Film Daily of April 5, 1940 said that a new, $50,000 building was being erected at Ebensburg to Replace the Allison Circuit’s Rivoli Theatre, which had been destroyed by a fire some time earlier. A February 17 Boxoffice item about the fire said that the burned theater had been built in 1915 by a Pittsburgh steel mogul named D. E. Park.
The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two theaters at Patton, the Star and the Majestic. The earliest mention of the Grand I’ve found is on a list in the August 7, 1918 issue of Moving Picture World. The October 9, 1920 MPW noted that the Grand was being enlarged from 350 to 500 seats. It also says that W. A. Dinsmore was the owner of both the Grand and the Majestic.
After the Vernon Theatre was destroyed by a fire, its site became the location of a small public open space called Fridman Park. It is on the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue about 100 feet east of Crawford. Google Maps says it is at 950 Philadelphia, but that’s way off. The businesses across the street are at 910 and 914, so the theater would probably have been in the range of 911-915.
The house seen on the 1923 and 1930 Sanborns at 1002 Philadelphia must have been the one listed in 1926 and 1929 FDYs as the Russell. It’s the only theater listed those years besides Smith’s (which we know was not on Philadelphia Avenue.) The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists two houses on Philadelphia Avenue in Barnesboro, the Pastime and the Rex. It also lists two without locations, the Gaiety and the Grand. We have the Grand listed under the town’s modern name of Northern Cambria. Gaiety is still a mystery. Perhaps a missing aka for Smith’s?
The Park Theatre was listed in a 1920 Minnesota directory at 125 E. Water St. (125 4th Avenue NE.)
At some point, Water Street was renamed 4th Avenue– one of very many annoying street name changes in Austin. As the Paramount Theatre was built on the foundations of the Park Theatre, the address of the Park was probably the same, 125 4th Avenue NE.
This was an Ultra-Vision house, using a system developed by Wil-Kin Theater Services. In time, more than sixty Ultra-Vision theaters were opened, and as far as I know all of them were in the southeast. The system could be used with either 35 or 70mm projectors, but I think most of the houses used 35mm to keep overall costs down. Information about the system is sparse on the Internet, but as near as I can tell it uses dual projectors with their beams sent through an apparatus that blends the images seamlessly on a curved, lenticulated screen. The system was premiered at the Terrace Theater in Asheville, N.C., in 1968.
In what was likely a double listing caused by the name change, both the Cozy and the Unique are listed, on Main Street, in the 1914-1915 American Motion Puicture Directory.
I’m now doubting the accuracy of the 1966 Daily Herald article that said the Lyric Theatre had become the State Theatre. Both the Lyric and the State are listed in FDYs in 1926 and 1927, and I’ve found the State mentioned in Universal Weekly as far back as April 5, 1924. The Lyric goes back to at least as early as 1914, having been listed in the AMPD that year. In the FDYs, the Lyric and State have wildly different seating capacities (600 and 1,500 respectively, though I suspect the latter is a wild exaggeration.) The 600-seat Lyric is last listed in 1927, and in 1928 a 600-seat Eagle Theatre makes its first appearance. Eagle is thus a likely new name for the Lyric, but State is not.
An Eagle Theatre with 600 seats is listed in the 1928 FDY. This was its first appearance. A 600-seat Lyric Theatre listed in the 1927 FDY is no longer listed in 1928. According to a 1966 article in the Austin Daily Herald the Lyric became the State, but checking the FDYs from the period, I find both the Lyric and the State listed in both the 1926 and the 1927 editions. I’ve found the State mentioned in Universal Weekly as early as April 5, 1924, so the Lyric probably didn’t become the State. More likely it became the Eagle in 1927 or very early 1928. The Lyric was one of at least six movie houses operating in Austin in 1914.
The much lower seating capacity listed in FDY in 1940 (and 1938) could have been the result of the house closing a balcony, but given that the manager was claiming 500 seats in 1940, I’m inclined to attribute the lower number to FDY’s notorious inaccuracy when it comes to seating capacities.
The Eagle is last listed in the 1942 FDY, with 250 seats. A 250-seat house called the Rex first appears in the 1943 edition, and I suspect a name change. But then the 233-seat Eagle reappears in the 1949 FDY and there is no Rex listed, so it looks like the name might have been changed back.
This house might have been called the Idle Hour Theatre. An interesting item appeared in the August 9, 1913 issue of Motography, which said that W. A. Matlack, operator of the Idle Hour Theatre at New Hampton, had leased the Opera House and would present a season of plays, while continuing to show movies at the Idle Hour.
The only theater listed at New Hampton in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory was the Idle Hour, and it was listed as being on Main Street. The December 2, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World said that “[t]he Idle Hour theater has been remodeled and the interior redecorated.” The house was still in operation in 1918, when the May 4 MPW said it had been taken over by a new owner. That’s the latest mention of the Idle Hour I’ve been able to find. In 1917 the new Fireman’s Theatre opened and began showing movies in November, and it seems unlikely that any competitors would have lasted long.
As for the Opera House, it had 400 seats according to a 1908 Iowa business directory, which listed it as one of two theaters in New Hampton, the other being the 3,000-seat Fireman’s Auditorium. The Fireman’s Theatre opened in 1917 was the second big theater built by the New Hampton Fire Department. The first opened in 1898, as part of the department’s new headquarters. It doesn’t seem to have harmed business at the Opera House, though, as that venue continued to be mentioned in The Billboard and The New York Clipper into the 1910s. The Opera House must have had a flat floor , though, as the local high school’s basketball games were held there for many years.
This was the second large theater built by the New Hampton Fire Department. The first was a 3,000-seat auditorium on the upper floors of the department’s new headquarters, a huge, Romanesque Revival pile built in 1898. It was apparently never used as a movie theater, but this second hall, opened in 1917, was equipped as a movie theater from very early in its history.
A notice that the Fireman’s Hall had begun operating as a full time movie theater appeared in the November 3, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World. The hall had opened earlier that year with live performances.
The Firemen’s Theatre closed as a movie house in 1984, but reopened in 1987 as a live venue. It was destroyed by an arson fire not too long after.
The Barthel Opera House building was destroyed by a fire that started in the early morning hours of October 22, 2007. At the time of its destruction it was occupied by a restaurant called Wild Willy’s Pizza Saloon. It’s likely that the Barthell was equipped to show movies from the time of its construction, as a notice that the house was nearing completion appeared in the July 24, 1915 issue of Moving Picture World. Still, trade journal mentions of Waukon after that are invariably about the Cota (or Cote) Theatre, so the Barthell was probably never the town’s most important movie venue.
I don’t think we can trust the NRHP’s date of c 1900 for this building. The historic district’s nomination form has a number of questionable claims.
More significantly, several trade journals from 1921 note the construction of a new theater on Bridge Street in Shinnston for a Miss Lynne Monroe. The November 4th issue of Variety even gives the name Columbia Theatre, and says that ground had been broken for the 300-seat house, which was expected to be completed before the end of December. Several journals note that the 30x80 foot brick and tile building had been designed by Clarksburg architect J. E. (John Edward) Wood.
Nessa is correct that the photos here depict the Rice Theatre, which operated from 1948 to 1957. It was described in various trade journals as an upstairs theater with a large store on the ground floor.
So far I’ve been unable to find any historic references to a house called the Colonial Theatre at Shinnston. While searching I’ve found a couple of stray listings: A Lyric Theatre is listed in FDYs from 1927, ‘28 and '29, no seating capacity listed, and a 400-seat Paramount Theatre is listed in 1931 only. Neither of these names appear to be aka’s for other known houses, as the Columbia, Princess and Rex continue to be listed as well.
Multiple sources indicate that this house at 314 Pike Street was the second of its name in Shinnston. The earlier Princess, in operation by 1921, was across the street at 323 Pike. The new theater opened in 1940, the same year the town’s first Rex Theatre was burned out of the former Opera House on Walnut Street. The Princess and Rex had been under the same ownership, and for a while the old Princess went by the name Princess-Rex, though it later returned to being simply the Rex. CinemaTour says that the Princess operated at its new location from 1940 until 1961. A book called Around Shinnston says that a furniture store had moved into the Princess building by 1964, so 1961 is likely right as the closing date.