Fairbanks Theatre
24 W. Main Street,
Springfield,
OH
45501
24 W. Main Street,
Springfield,
OH
45501
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp.
Functions: Office Space
Nearby Theaters
Built in 1906 and located in the First National Bank Building, which also contained a hotel and stores. By 1941 it was operated by Warner Bros. Circuit Management Corp. The Fairbanks Theatre was still open in 1950.
The auditorium has now been demolished and the remainder of the building has been converted into office space.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
I’m sure the auditorium is gone. There’s a big parking lot behind the L-shaped Fairbanks Building now, where the theater must have been. The office building itself isn’t big enough, or the right shape, to have housed a theater.
I don’t know where the story that the Fairbanks Building was originally a hotel started, but it’s all over the Internet. Period sources (1907, 1911, 1922) all indicate that it was an office building with a theater and a few shops from the beginning. A brief biography (published 1911) of Newton Hamilton Fairbanks, who built the building, describes it as “…one of the largest bank, store and office buildings (fireproof) in Ohio; this building also contains Fairbanks Theater.”
Joe is right, there was never a hotel in this building. Most of it was bank offices, and there were some stores in the ground floor. The auditorium was a 3-4 story brick structure that completely filled in the ‘L’. It’s still shown on the 1955 map.
The address is incorrect. The theater entrance was at 24.