David you’re right. I hadn’t noticed the back of that building, which does look like an old stage house. Its modern address is 1116 Prospect, though. If that’s the Sanders Theatre building, the lots on the block must have been renumbered since the old directories were published.
DavidAE: For those who don’t know HTML, Cinema Treasures now supports Markdown Code, for which you need only square brackets and parentheses to embed a link in your text. Scroll down to the LINKS section of the page to see the example code. All you will need at Cinema Treasures are inline-style links, so all you have to do is put the text you want to become the link in square brackets, and then paste your copied URL between parentheses immediately following the closing bracket.
Here is the Markdown code output for the three links you posted:
Lost Memory’s photo link has gone missing, but I think this is probably the same photo. The description with the photo mistakenly gives the location and history of the other Strand Theatre (the Capitol Theatre,) but the photo has to depict this house at 1330 E. Washington. The Capitol Theatre building was very different.
It looks to me like the entrance to the Fountain Square Theatre is at 1111 Prospect Street, not 1105 Shelby Street. The latter appears to be the address of the attached office building.
Here is the official web site. It says “[c]losed and gutted in the late 1950’s the former theatre space housed a Woolworth five and dime store, then years later a thrift shop.” The current interior is more a reinterpretation than a restoration, although the page also says that some original architectural features remain intact on the mezzanine level. The photo gallery includes one shot of the original interior, and it was quite different from what is there now.
The photo we are currently displaying depicts the Fountain Square Theatre at 1105 Prospect Street. The Sanders Theatre must have been across the street. On its site (1106-1110 Prospect) there is an old-looking brick commercial building that has “2001 A.D.” carved in its parapet, so the theater might have been demolished, unless the date denotes an extensive renovation of the building.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Sanders Theatre at 1106-08 Prospect Street. The 1916 directory lists it as the Quality Theater, Fred W. Sanders, Proprietor.
In 1916, The Indianapolis Star was listing two houses called the Palms Theatre. In addition to the one on North Illinois Street there was one at 30th Street and Highland Place.
The Gayety was one of six theaters operating in Indianapolis according to Hyman’s Handbook of Indianapolis, published in 1907. The Gayety was one of the town’s two burlesque houses.
I see a building at 2530 (bicycle shop) and a building at 2544-46, but there’s a parking lot in between them. Unless the addresses have been shifted, the Daisy Theatre has been demolished.
The Daisy Theatre was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Polk’s 1919 and 1922 Indianapolis City Directories list the Emerald Theatre at 441-43 Blake Street. Most of Blake Street has been swallowed up by the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University-Perdue University. The Emerald Theatre was advertised as being at Blake and W. Washington Streets in issues of The Indianapolis Star in 1915.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Crystal Theatre at 119-21 N. Illinois Avenue. The theater might have moved to a new building at some point, unless the lots were renumbered or there was an error in the directory.
“The Bio theater, at Fifth avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets, Moline, has opened,” was the brief notice in the January 4, 1913, issue of Motography, which means the event probably took place in late 1912.
In 1919, the Bio Theatre had a two manual, 27 register Möller organ, Opus 2792. Its fate is unknown.
There might have been a theater on the site of the Illini even before the bank that was later converted into the Illini was built in 1920. This item comes from the October 26, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Moline, Ill — A contract has been let for the erection of a new theater for Rufus Walker. Location 1611 Fifth Avenue. Cost $12,000.”
I don’t know if Mr. Walker’s theater got built or not, but if it was it must have been demolished eight years later to make way for the bank building that became the Illini Theatre in 1941, or perhaps part of it was incorporated into the new building.
I think the correct address for the Bio Theatre is most likely 1615 Fifth Avenue, which would be in downtown Moline, rather than 1615 Fifth Street, which is in an old residential district. There is also this item from the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which, though it doesn’t give a street number, does say that the Bio was then on Fifth Avenue:
“Moline, Ill. — The site of the Bio theater on Fifth avenue, has been sold to R. S. Woodburn, a local real estate dealer. It is given out that for a while at least the Bio, operated by A. C. Woodyatt, will continue.”
It’s possible that Mr. Woodburn later decided to kick the theater out, but more likely that he would have decided to keep it as a tenant. The building now on the site houses the Moline Community Center, but it is a low, wide structure that occupies at least three lots from 1613 (next door to the Illini Theatre building) to 1617, and it looks too modern to have been the building the theater was in. I’d surmise that it dates from the 1950s at the earliest, and probably housed a chain store or small local department store.
A Mrs. A. B. Woodyatt of the Bio Theatre, Moline, sent reviews of recent movies to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World in the spring of 1928. An A. C. Woodyatt was operating the Lyric Theatre on 6th Avenue in 1911, so the Woodyatt family was involved in film exhibition at Moline for quite a while. Albert C. Woodyatt also operated a piano shop in Moline.
The Illini Theatre has not been demolished. It is listed as a contributing property in Moline’s Downtown Commercial Historic District. The structure was built in 1920 as a bank and converted into a theater in 1941. After closing as a theater it was converted into a Walgreen’s drug store. In the current Google street view the building is vacant.
Yes, the address is for the architect. Building trade journals usually gave the addresses of architects, builders, and sometimes even subcontractors, but only occasionally gave the addresses of the projects themselves. Theater trade journals such as Film Daily were more likely to give the addresses of the theaters, though they sometimes gave the address of the person or company having the theater built, which was often another theater that was already in operation.
The Lyric was probably in operation by 1921, as it is advertised in the January 12, 1922 issue of the Whitesville News.
A comment on this Facebook page says that the Lyric Theatre had been in the building that,in 1960, became a combination cattle auction/restaurant called the Cow Palace. The building had originally been the Chase Garage, seen in a photo on this web page. The photo must date from before the theater opened. It was a large structure, and the theater probably only occupied part of it.
After the Cow Palace closed, the building was demolished. It is now the site of a facility occupied by the Independence Emergency Squad, an ambulance service, at 508 Main Street. That might not have been the theater’s exact address, but it was probably close to it.
CinemaTour says that the Times Theatre was designed by local architect Raymond G. Johnson.
The May 15, 1953, issue of the Jacksonville Daily Journal reported that Fox Midwest has sold the Times and several other theaters in the region to a local company called El Fran Theatres. Houses in Centralia, Mt. Vernon, Benton, West Frankfort and Marion were part of the deal.
By 1964, the Times was being operated by the Frisina Amusement Company, who still controlled the house at least as late as 1976.
David you’re right. I hadn’t noticed the back of that building, which does look like an old stage house. Its modern address is 1116 Prospect, though. If that’s the Sanders Theatre building, the lots on the block must have been renumbered since the old directories were published.
DavidAE: For those who don’t know HTML, Cinema Treasures now supports Markdown Code, for which you need only square brackets and parentheses to embed a link in your text. Scroll down to the LINKS section of the page to see the example code. All you will need at Cinema Treasures are inline-style links, so all you have to do is put the text you want to become the link in square brackets, and then paste your copied URL between parentheses immediately following the closing bracket.
Here is the Markdown code output for the three links you posted:
Link one
Link two
Link three
Lost Memory’s photo link has gone missing, but I think this is probably the same photo. The description with the photo mistakenly gives the location and history of the other Strand Theatre (the Capitol Theatre,) but the photo has to depict this house at 1330 E. Washington. The Capitol Theatre building was very different.
It looks to me like the entrance to the Fountain Square Theatre is at 1111 Prospect Street, not 1105 Shelby Street. The latter appears to be the address of the attached office building.
Here is the official web site. It says “[c]losed and gutted in the late 1950’s the former theatre space housed a Woolworth five and dime store, then years later a thrift shop.” The current interior is more a reinterpretation than a restoration, although the page also says that some original architectural features remain intact on the mezzanine level. The photo gallery includes one shot of the original interior, and it was quite different from what is there now.
The photo we are currently displaying depicts the Fountain Square Theatre at 1105 Prospect Street. The Sanders Theatre must have been across the street. On its site (1106-1110 Prospect) there is an old-looking brick commercial building that has “2001 A.D.” carved in its parapet, so the theater might have been demolished, unless the date denotes an extensive renovation of the building.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Sanders Theatre at 1106-08 Prospect Street. The 1916 directory lists it as the Quality Theater, Fred W. Sanders, Proprietor.
In 1916, The Indianapolis Star was listing two houses called the Palms Theatre. In addition to the one on North Illinois Street there was one at 30th Street and Highland Place.
The house at 136 N. Illinois Street was listed as the Palms Theatre in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
The Gayety was one of six theaters operating in Indianapolis according to Hyman’s Handbook of Indianapolis, published in 1907. The Gayety was one of the town’s two burlesque houses.
I see a building at 2530 (bicycle shop) and a building at 2544-46, but there’s a parking lot in between them. Unless the addresses have been shifted, the Daisy Theatre has been demolished.
The Daisy Theatre was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Polk’s 1919 and 1922 Indianapolis City Directories list the Emerald Theatre at 441-43 Blake Street. Most of Blake Street has been swallowed up by the Indianapolis campus of Indiana University-Perdue University. The Emerald Theatre was advertised as being at Blake and W. Washington Streets in issues of The Indianapolis Star in 1915.
Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory lists the Crystal Theatre at 119-21 N. Illinois Avenue. The theater might have moved to a new building at some point, unless the lots were renumbered or there was an error in the directory.
The Columbia Theatre was listed at 535 N. Senate Avenue in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
The Washington Theatre at 521 Indiana Avenue was listed in Polk’s 1919 Indianapolis City Directory.
Not surprisingly, English’s Opera House was on this list of theaters designed by J. B. McElfatrick & Son, published in 1892.
The Annex Theater at 118 S. Illinois Street is listed in the 1909 Indianapolis city directory.
A Pekin house called the Capitol Theatre was mentioned in the September 8, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World.
The Pekin Theatre probably opened in late 1928. A brief announcement that the house had opened appeared in the January 6, 1929, issue of Film Daily.
“The Bio theater, at Fifth avenue, between Sixth and Seventh streets, Moline, has opened,” was the brief notice in the January 4, 1913, issue of Motography, which means the event probably took place in late 1912.
In 1919, the Bio Theatre had a two manual, 27 register Möller organ, Opus 2792. Its fate is unknown.
There might have been a theater on the site of the Illini even before the bank that was later converted into the Illini was built in 1920. This item comes from the October 26, 1912, issue of The Moving Picture World:
I don’t know if Mr. Walker’s theater got built or not, but if it was it must have been demolished eight years later to make way for the bank building that became the Illini Theatre in 1941, or perhaps part of it was incorporated into the new building.I think the correct address for the Bio Theatre is most likely 1615 Fifth Avenue, which would be in downtown Moline, rather than 1615 Fifth Street, which is in an old residential district. There is also this item from the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which, though it doesn’t give a street number, does say that the Bio was then on Fifth Avenue:
It’s possible that Mr. Woodburn later decided to kick the theater out, but more likely that he would have decided to keep it as a tenant. The building now on the site houses the Moline Community Center, but it is a low, wide structure that occupies at least three lots from 1613 (next door to the Illini Theatre building) to 1617, and it looks too modern to have been the building the theater was in. I’d surmise that it dates from the 1950s at the earliest, and probably housed a chain store or small local department store.A Mrs. A. B. Woodyatt of the Bio Theatre, Moline, sent reviews of recent movies to Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World in the spring of 1928. An A. C. Woodyatt was operating the Lyric Theatre on 6th Avenue in 1911, so the Woodyatt family was involved in film exhibition at Moline for quite a while. Albert C. Woodyatt also operated a piano shop in Moline.
The Illini Theatre has not been demolished. It is listed as a contributing property in Moline’s Downtown Commercial Historic District. The structure was built in 1920 as a bank and converted into a theater in 1941. After closing as a theater it was converted into a Walgreen’s drug store. In the current Google street view the building is vacant.
Yes, the address is for the architect. Building trade journals usually gave the addresses of architects, builders, and sometimes even subcontractors, but only occasionally gave the addresses of the projects themselves. Theater trade journals such as Film Daily were more likely to give the addresses of the theaters, though they sometimes gave the address of the person or company having the theater built, which was often another theater that was already in operation.
The Lyric was probably in operation by 1921, as it is advertised in the January 12, 1922 issue of the Whitesville News.
A comment on this Facebook page says that the Lyric Theatre had been in the building that,in 1960, became a combination cattle auction/restaurant called the Cow Palace. The building had originally been the Chase Garage, seen in a photo on this web page. The photo must date from before the theater opened. It was a large structure, and the theater probably only occupied part of it.
After the Cow Palace closed, the building was demolished. It is now the site of a facility occupied by the Independence Emergency Squad, an ambulance service, at 508 Main Street. That might not have been the theater’s exact address, but it was probably close to it.
CinemaTour says that the Times Theatre was designed by local architect Raymond G. Johnson.
The May 15, 1953, issue of the Jacksonville Daily Journal reported that Fox Midwest has sold the Times and several other theaters in the region to a local company called El Fran Theatres. Houses in Centralia, Mt. Vernon, Benton, West Frankfort and Marion were part of the deal.
By 1964, the Times was being operated by the Frisina Amusement Company, who still controlled the house at least as late as 1976.