West End Theatre
685 W. 5th Street,
Winona,
MN
55987
685 W. 5th Street,
Winona,
MN
55987
1 person
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Typo in the description. Closed 1979, NOT 1969!
Opened with a Harold Lloyd comedy(not named), and “Back to God’s country”.
The West End Theater opened on January 16, 1921 and closed on May 31, 1957. It was re-christened the Cinema and re-opened on October 9, 1968. The final Cinema movie screening was on May 30, 1979 (“Ice Castles”).
Don’t know if anyone still goes on here, but this is now apartments and a couple store fronts. The old movie title display is still out front. I live in one of the apartments :)
Thanks for all the info added for this one in the past few days. The exact closing date of May 31, 1957 and the exact re-opening date of October 9, 1968 (as the Cinema) should be noted above. Also, I think we’ve firmly established that the State opened in 1926, not 1930. Sorry to be a pain, but I’m a stickler for the facts.
Just a little clarification. The West End opened on January 16, 1921. It was started by the Colonial Amusement Company. I agree that any remodeling was probably pretty minor.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicates that the firm did remodeling work on the West End Theatre in 1931 and again in 1936. There’s no indication of the extent of the projects, but given that the house was only opened in 1925 they were probably not major.
According to my research, the West End Theatre closed on May 31, 1957. It re-opened as the Cinema on October 9, 1968.
I’ve just added a photo of the ad for the opening of the West End Theatre on January 16, 1921.
I’m doing some research on all of the old movie theaters in Winona. I did find another one called the Broadway Theater, which was located at 724 E. Broadway Street, which is a little bit east of downtown Winona. I found movie listings there as late as 1941. I also learned that after being closed for several years, it re-opened as a grocery store in the summer of 1955 (as the Broadway Super Saver). There was a small fire there in 1967, but I believe the building is still standing. I’ll share anymore information I can find, but the Broadway should be listed.
The original West End Theater closed around 1958. In the fall of 1968 it re-opened as “Cinema” and stayed open through the 1970s. Both were at the 685 W. 5th St. location, which was actually a bit west of downtown Winona. I saw several movies there in the 1970s.
Is it certain that the West End Theater is demolished? I came across this merchant listing for a West End Theater Group; the photo is clearly that of a movie theater and the text indicates it is located in the West End Theater Building; however, the address is 685 W. Fifth. Clicking on the photo will enlarge it:
http://www.merchantcircle.com/business/Historic.West.End.Theater.Group.507-457-0872
I found another 1915 Music Trade Review item that said: “Bert and Harry Beyerstedt are planning to erect a new People’s Theater in Winona.” From the wording it sounds like they already operated a theater called the People’s, and were replacing it with a new building.
Also, I misspelled the name as Beyerstadt in my previous comment. The vowels should all be e’s.
Chuck’s description says there were five theaters in downtown Winona, but only four are currently listed. I have two sources saying that, in 1915, the Beyerstadt Amusement Company (or Beyerstadt Bros.) was building a theater in Winona. It might be the missing theater.
An item in one issue of Music Trade Review said the Beyerstadt Bros. theater was being built at Fourth and Johnson streets. That would have put it very close to the State and Winona theaters, both of which were on Johnson between Third and Fourth.
An item in the trade journal Engineering & Contracting said that the new Beyerstadt Amusement Company theater was being designed by La Crosse architect Otto A. Merman.