Theatre
325 5th Street,
Correctionville,
IA
51016
325 5th Street,
Correctionville,
IA
51016
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
This small theatre was open by 1916, in a single story brick storefront, one of two almost certainly built in 1892 in conjunction with the larger Fitchner & Laub store/Columbia Theatre located to the west. The decorative bricks along the cornice were identical.
It’s likely that this theatre was opened to allow the opera house next door to concentrate on live acts, high school graduations, etc. It seems to have been closed by 1927, when the slightly larger Ritz Theatre was opened to the north.
This building was well kept, and seems to have been used as a residence. Possibly damaged when the opera house partially collapsed in September 2010, it was rather crudely hacked off of its twin to the east, and is today the site of a crummy prefab auto parts store.
Note that the historical address was 129 Erwin, but this was changed at some point.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Two theater names associated with Correctionville were the Scenic and the Radio, or New Radio. Both appear in the FDY in 1926 and 1927, while the 1928 edition lists only the Ritz Theatre. It’s possible that the Ritz was one or the other of those houses, renamed, and if so then this theater at 325 Fifth must have been the other.
One other Correctionville theater name is revealed in the 1996 obituary of Doris L. Grawburg Beers, which says that during the silent movie era she played the piano at the New Radio Theatre and, before that, at a house called the Luna Theatre. It says her piano playing career lasted six years, and as the Radio apparently closed or was renamed in 1927, she might have begun playing as early as 1922, when she was thirteen years old.
One other bit of information probably useful is that a Scenic Theatre was listed at Correctionville in Polk’s 1914 Iowa Gazetteer, with no address alas, so it’s not possible to say if it was the same Scenic that was operating in 1926.
It’s crazy that such a tiny little town had so much going on. We may never be able to untangle it.