Ritz Theatre
814 E. Main Street,
Richmond,
IN
47375
814 E. Main Street,
Richmond,
IN
47375
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The Ritz Theatre appears on the 1937-1950 update to the 1909 Sanborn. It had opened on November 25, 1928 with Thomas Meighan in “Tin Gods”. It had replaced two very old stores shown on the 1909 map.
The theatre was a large two story brick building. Deep and generously sized storefronts flanked an entry hallway. A curious feature of the entry was that it made a distinct rounded bulge just off the street. An addition on the front section, likely for a staircase, blocked off the alley that had existed to the east, although the auditorium maintained the rear section, probably as a fire exit.
There was a narrow transverse lobby with several doors for entry into the auditorium. The Ritz Theatre was closed in 1960 and it was repurposed as a drug store.
While the structure still exists, the front has suffered a bland dryvit remodel. The building is home to a community development organization, and some of the auditorium may still survive in the conference and event spaces they maintain.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
This was the Ritz Theater. In 1960, it closed and the building was renovated (essentially gutted) and became Osco Drugs.
Another tidbit… the Ritz opened on Thanksgiving Day, November 25th, 1926. The movie shown for the Grand Opening was Tin Gods starring Thomas Meighan.
The 800-seat Ritz Theater on Main between Eighth and Ninth streets was built by the Remley Realty Corporation, whose officers were Mahlon Remley, Robert Weichman and Wilfred Jessup. The company, also operating the Murray, Murrette and Washington theaters, opened the Ritz on November 25, 1926, Thanksgiving Day, although a soft opening took place the day before.
On March 2, 1929, Remley sold the Ritz building to the local Kennedy Clothing Company, which in turn leased the Ritz to Remley. On April 19, 1929, Richmond exhibitor Robert Hudson acquired the Ritz’s lease and theater rights. On April 24, 1929, Harry Gilbert, court-appointed receiver for the Remley company, announced that Remley’s Murray and Murrette leases had been forfeited and were to be taken over by Clarence Jessup and Frank Holland, whose Jessup-Holland Amusement Company had leased the Washington Theatre from Remley in September 1928. (The redecorated Washington debuted in October 1928 as the Lawrence Theatre.) Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElroy took control of the Ritz on August 15, 1929, acquiring the lease from Hudson. That month a new $15,000 sound-picture apparatus was installed in the Ritz.
In January 1933 Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElroy was placed into receivership, followed by bankruptcy. On February 1, 1933, Referee in Bankruptcy Carl Wilde appointed Irving Lemaux to manage as Trustee in Bankruptcy the nineteen theaters in Indiana formerly operated by Publix-Fitzpatrick-McElroy. In March 1933 the federal bankruptcy court auctioned the leases for eleven theaters formerly operated by the defunct chain. After bids on ten were rejected, the Trustee ordered a private sale of the ten, including the Tivoli, Ritz, Indiana and Lawrence theaters in Richmond, Ind.
On April 1, 1933, the Referee announced that the Tivoli, Ritz and Indiana would go to a new set-up headed by Hudson, the Richmond exhibitor, in cooperation with Theatrical Managers, Inc. In a two-step transaction the three theaters were sold to Theatrical Managers, Inc., then re-sold to Hudson.