Grand Theatre

The tiny, 250-seat Grand Theatre was opened by A.W. Marchand in the existing, 1896-built E.M. Neff Building at 161 North Seltzer Street on March 30, 1910. Operating with a single projector, Marchand offered up four one reel films and live sing-alongs for a nickel. Railroad employees were a major source of patronage as Crestline was at the junction of two railroads in the Pennsylvania Railroad - with a functioning roundhouse - and the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis Railway (aka CCC&StL and The Big Four Railway). 

The Grand Theatre was Marchand’s fourth picture show including Galion’s Grand Theatre, as well as one each in Upper Sandusky and Ashland. It got competition from the Hippodrome / Hipp Theatre at 118 Bucyrus Street less than two blocks away. Leo J. “Burkie” Burkhart took on the Grand Theatre and the Hipp Theatre to end competition in 1919. He almost immediately added a second projector to the Grand Theatre to allow for feature-length films / photoplays without interruption. The Hipp Theatre got a pipe organ less than a year later. As sound came to the industry, the Grand Theatre remained silent operating just one day a week before closing in June of 1928.

The Neff Building was torn down for an A&P store. Burkie would add sound to the Hipp Theatre and later added the Streamline Moderne style Crest Theatre as the town’s final movie theatre.

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