There appears to have been an earlier Majestic Theatre in Stephenville. This is from the February 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
“Stephenville, Texas, is to have a new theater, according to an announcement made by Chaucer Caver, manager and owner of the Majestic theater of that place. Work on construction on the new building will begin in the very near future. The seating capacity is planned at 500, and the construction and equipment will be of the best, including a terra cotta front.”
The Majestic had competition, according to this item from MPW of March 11 the same year: “Miller’s theater, Stephenvllle. seating about 400, opened up February 20, under the management of J. R. Miller.”
This web page has a transcript of the “Entertainment” section of El Paso Story, a book published in 1954. It describes the Grand Opera House and the El Paso Theatre as the same house. The Opera House was not replaced by the El Paso Theatre, it was renamed the El Paso Theatre at some point. Out page for the El Paso just has the wrong location.
Thanks for the information, keithyorkcity. This page from the Museum of the City of New York has a drawing of the Wadsworth Theatre by Anthony Dumas, and the notation says that it opened in 1910 and was torn down in 1916.
The building on the site now appears to be fairly old, the brickwork being characteristic of the 1910s, but the Wadsworth Theatre was a big, elaborate building, and I can’t fathom why it would have been demolished when it was only five years old, even if it was unprofitable as a theater. It seems that it could have been converted to some other use. That it would have been replaced by the single-story building on the lot now is very strange.
The Dumas drawing is dated 1939, so if the theater was demolished in 1916 he must have been working from old photos or the architects' own drawings. But it also makes me wonder if the museum’s claim of a 1916 demolition might be wrong.
WoodyinNYC: While it’s always possible that there was another architect named Ayers who worked in San Antonio at the time, there probably wasn’t. Trade journals from back in the day were typically riddled with typos and other errors. Much of the information was sent in by people in the trade who were moonlighting for a bit of extra cash.
I checked the Daily Bulletin and found another item about the theater, appearing in the issue of February 11, and in that one the architect’s name was given as A. C. Ayers.
It’s most likely that both entries were mistaken, and the one in February was just less mistaken than the one in March. Possibly some salesman with sloppy lettering sent in both items, and maybe the magazine’s typesetter was drunk, to boot. In any case, it probably was Atlee B. Ayers who was designing the proposed theater in 1907.
So far I’ve been unable to find anything else about Mr. Nolte’s mystery theater of 1907, but new sources do surface on the Internet now and then, so (if it was built) something about it could turn up eventually.
Cheboygan, by Matthew J. Friday (Google Books preview) says that the Kingston Theatre opened in March, 1920. The October 16, 1920, issue of Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record confirms that the house was built that year.
It was because the letter in the photo looked more like a C than a G to me that I decided to check the Internet for period sources. I think the stone carver just used a boxy style and overdid the extensions. Also, enlarging the picture I don’t see the cross-bar on the lower extension that would indicate a G.
This web page about the Butler Historic District says that the Majestic Theatre was built in 1904-1905 and was designed by local architect F. J. Porter.
The founder of the Cozy Theatre was named Henry Krech, not Kregh. Every document, both modern and historic, that I’ve seen on the Internet uses the name Krech, including this item from the April 6, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World: “Spirit Lake, Idaho. — H. Krech has opened a new motion picture theater here.”
My apologies for the confusion over the location of the Colonial Theatre in my earlier comment. I carelessly misread the text in Bennick’s book. The Colonial was at 168 Main Street, not 168 Johnson Street.
From items in two 1912 issues of the trade journal Motography it looks as though Roesner and Mott either moved the Princess Theatre to a new location or rebuilt the original building that year. The March, 1912, issue said “A new motion picture theater is being erected at Winona by Messrs. Roesner and Mott.” The item in the May issue said “The Princess motion picture theater of Winona is nearing completion and will be opened to the public early in the month.”
winonakid: If you check the local sources from the spring of 1912, you might find a notice that the Princess was moving to a new location. The March, 1912, issue of Motography said “A new motion picture theater is being erected at Winona by Messrs. Roesner and Mott.” Then the May issue had this item: “The Princess motion picture theater of Winona is nearing completion and will be opened to the public early in the month.”
The April issue of the same publication has an item about the Dream Theatre: “Beyerstedt Brothers have opened the new Dream Theater at the corner of Third and Main streets, Winona. Daylight pictures will be shown.” You might be able to find a local article about that event as well.
1912 was a busy time for theaters in Winona. Another projected movie house was mentioned in the February issue of Motography: “An up-to-date moving-picture theater, the fourth in the place, will be opened at Winona by J. F. Glubka… and David Janikowski….” Assuming that this project was carried to completion, the event must have been noted in the local press.
The Colonial Theatre must have suffered some delays in construction. The October 7, 1911, issue of The Billboard ran this item:
“Roesner and Mott, owners of the Princess Theatre at Winona, Minn., are building a $35,000 vaudeville house in that city, and expect to have the theatre finished by January 1. They will continue to run the Princess, which is a picture house.”
Other sources I’ve seen say that the Princess Theatre opened in 1912, but here it was already operating in 1911. Possibly it was moved to a new location in 1912.
There was a house called the Cozy Theater operating in Spirit Lake at least as early as 1919. That year, the February 12 issue of The Insurance Press reported that the building and contents of the Cozy Theater had been destroyed by a fire on January 18. It must not have been a costly building, as the loss was estimated at a mere $3,000. This might have been a predecessor of the Cozy Theatre in the Kregh building.
The May 26, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had this item:
“Marietta, O. — Shea’s new Ohio
Theater, seating 600, has been opened with an all-film policy. Forney Bowers, many years manager of the Shea-controlled theaters in New Philadelphia, is manager of the new house.”
Despite the vintage look of the current facade, the New Theatre once sported a streamline modern front, as seen in the photo on page 110 of New Baltimore, by Richard Gonyeau, Bob Mack, and Alan Naldrett (Google Books preview.)
The November 2, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Broadway Theatre:
“The new Broadway Theatre
recently constructed at Winona, Minn., by H. A. Rolbiecki opened this week. The theatre has a seating capacity of 600. It is finished in golden rod brick and is modern in every respect. Mr. Rolbiecki opened the Strand at Winona two years ago, and also operated the Dream Theatre in that city. Both of these houses proved money makers.”
The Strand, by the way, was at either 71, 72, or 73 E. Third Street, according to a muddy scan of an item about it in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. I haven’t discovered where the Dream Theatre was, but it is supposed to have opened in 1912.
A house called the Colonial Theatre appears at old address 126 S. Scales Street on the 1922 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Most likely it was the same building that later became the Broadway Theatre. DocSouth says that the Broadway Theatre was in operation in 1926, when it had 500 seats.
The Grand Theatre appears on the 1922 Sanborn map of Reidsville. It had a balcony and a stage, and presented moving pictures and vaudeville.
DocSouth lists C. W. Davis as the manager of the Grand. An item about the opening of the Rockingham Theatre that was published in the January 4, 1930, issue of Motion Picture News (left column) praises C. W. Davis’s promotion of the opening of the Rockingham. It reproduces a small scan of one page of a special newspaper section about the theater. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give the date of the edition.
The Rockingham’s web site says that the theater was designed by Western Electric, but as far as I know that company only designed theater sound systems, and worked with theater architects advising them on ways to get the best acoustics for amplified sound in their theaters. I haven’t been able to discover the actual architect of the Grand or the Rockingham. It might be given in the newspaper section mentioned in the Motion Picture News item.
Our interface with Google Maps has some quirks. If there is an incomplete address for a theater when it is first posted, or if street names have been changed or the street has been realigned or closed, or we post the wrong zip code, Google appears to make its best guess as to where the theater actually was, and that sometimes puts the pin icon and street view miles from the theater’s actual location. If a full address is later added, for some reason it doesn’t always fix the map.
Here is an actual street view of the Delta Athletic Club in the former Liberty Theatre building.
According to a tourist brochure about downtown Boise (PDF here), the building now housing the Blues Bouquet was built in 1910. The New Boz Theatre was on the ground floor, and the upper floors housed the Manitou Hotel. The Blues Bouquet moved in in 1975.
The brochure doesn’t mention any other names for the theater, but here is a 1937 photo from the Idaho State Historical Society with the name Granada on the marquee.
I agree with Stephen that this house should be listed as the Granada Theatre. If it were still set up as a theater I’d say go ahead and list it under the current name, even if it was strictly a live music venue, but as far as I can tell from the photos on the Internet, it has been completely reconfigured as a bar with no theater seating at all. Even the stage looks like a typical bar stage, not a theater stage.
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.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicates that the firm worked on the Winona Theatre during the years 1936-1940 and again in 1950. One of those projects was probably the one in which the original Romanesque Revival facade was covered by one in the Streamline Modern style.
There appears to have been an earlier Majestic Theatre in Stephenville. This is from the February 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The Majestic had competition, according to this item from MPW of March 11 the same year: “Miller’s theater, Stephenvllle. seating about 400, opened up February 20, under the management of J. R. Miller.”Here is a photo of the Opera House and Masonic Temple in El Paso, Illinois, from a souvenir album published in 1896.
This web page has a transcript of the “Entertainment” section of El Paso Story, a book published in 1954. It describes the Grand Opera House and the El Paso Theatre as the same house. The Opera House was not replaced by the El Paso Theatre, it was renamed the El Paso Theatre at some point. Out page for the El Paso just has the wrong location.
Thanks for the information, keithyorkcity. This page from the Museum of the City of New York has a drawing of the Wadsworth Theatre by Anthony Dumas, and the notation says that it opened in 1910 and was torn down in 1916.
The building on the site now appears to be fairly old, the brickwork being characteristic of the 1910s, but the Wadsworth Theatre was a big, elaborate building, and I can’t fathom why it would have been demolished when it was only five years old, even if it was unprofitable as a theater. It seems that it could have been converted to some other use. That it would have been replaced by the single-story building on the lot now is very strange.
The Dumas drawing is dated 1939, so if the theater was demolished in 1916 he must have been working from old photos or the architects' own drawings. But it also makes me wonder if the museum’s claim of a 1916 demolition might be wrong.
WoodyinNYC: While it’s always possible that there was another architect named Ayers who worked in San Antonio at the time, there probably wasn’t. Trade journals from back in the day were typically riddled with typos and other errors. Much of the information was sent in by people in the trade who were moonlighting for a bit of extra cash.
I checked the Daily Bulletin and found another item about the theater, appearing in the issue of February 11, and in that one the architect’s name was given as A. C. Ayers.
It’s most likely that both entries were mistaken, and the one in February was just less mistaken than the one in March. Possibly some salesman with sloppy lettering sent in both items, and maybe the magazine’s typesetter was drunk, to boot. In any case, it probably was Atlee B. Ayers who was designing the proposed theater in 1907.
So far I’ve been unable to find anything else about Mr. Nolte’s mystery theater of 1907, but new sources do surface on the Internet now and then, so (if it was built) something about it could turn up eventually.
Cheboygan, by Matthew J. Friday (Google Books preview) says that the Kingston Theatre opened in March, 1920. The October 16, 1920, issue of Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record confirms that the house was built that year.
It was because the letter in the photo looked more like a C than a G to me that I decided to check the Internet for period sources. I think the stone carver just used a boxy style and overdid the extensions. Also, enlarging the picture I don’t see the cross-bar on the lower extension that would indicate a G.
This web page about the Butler Historic District says that the Majestic Theatre was built in 1904-1905 and was designed by local architect F. J. Porter.
The Loveland Stage Company is open again. Our web site link needs to be repaired. This one should work.
The founder of the Cozy Theatre was named Henry Krech, not Kregh. Every document, both modern and historic, that I’ve seen on the Internet uses the name Krech, including this item from the April 6, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World: “Spirit Lake, Idaho. — H. Krech has opened a new motion picture theater here.”
My apologies for the confusion over the location of the Colonial Theatre in my earlier comment. I carelessly misread the text in Bennick’s book. The Colonial was at 168 Main Street, not 168 Johnson Street.
From items in two 1912 issues of the trade journal Motography it looks as though Roesner and Mott either moved the Princess Theatre to a new location or rebuilt the original building that year. The March, 1912, issue said “A new motion picture theater is being erected at Winona by Messrs. Roesner and Mott.” The item in the May issue said “The Princess motion picture theater of Winona is nearing completion and will be opened to the public early in the month.”
winonakid: If you check the local sources from the spring of 1912, you might find a notice that the Princess was moving to a new location. The March, 1912, issue of Motography said “A new motion picture theater is being erected at Winona by Messrs. Roesner and Mott.” Then the May issue had this item: “The Princess motion picture theater of Winona is nearing completion and will be opened to the public early in the month.”
The April issue of the same publication has an item about the Dream Theatre: “Beyerstedt Brothers have opened the new Dream Theater at the corner of Third and Main streets, Winona. Daylight pictures will be shown.” You might be able to find a local article about that event as well.
1912 was a busy time for theaters in Winona. Another projected movie house was mentioned in the February issue of Motography: “An up-to-date moving-picture theater, the fourth in the place, will be opened at Winona by J. F. Glubka… and David Janikowski….” Assuming that this project was carried to completion, the event must have been noted in the local press.
The Colonial Theatre must have suffered some delays in construction. The October 7, 1911, issue of The Billboard ran this item:
Other sources I’ve seen say that the Princess Theatre opened in 1912, but here it was already operating in 1911. Possibly it was moved to a new location in 1912.There was a house called the Cozy Theater operating in Spirit Lake at least as early as 1919. That year, the February 12 issue of The Insurance Press reported that the building and contents of the Cozy Theater had been destroyed by a fire on January 18. It must not have been a costly building, as the loss was estimated at a mere $3,000. This might have been a predecessor of the Cozy Theatre in the Kregh building.
The May 26, 1936, issue of The Film Daily had this item:
Despite the vintage look of the current facade, the New Theatre once sported a streamline modern front, as seen in the photo on page 110 of New Baltimore, by Richard Gonyeau, Bob Mack, and Alan Naldrett (Google Books preview.)
The November 2, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Broadway Theatre:
The Strand, by the way, was at either 71, 72, or 73 E. Third Street, according to a muddy scan of an item about it in the July 15, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World. I haven’t discovered where the Dream Theatre was, but it is supposed to have opened in 1912.A house called the Colonial Theatre appears at old address 126 S. Scales Street on the 1922 Sanborn Fire Insurance map. Most likely it was the same building that later became the Broadway Theatre. DocSouth says that the Broadway Theatre was in operation in 1926, when it had 500 seats.
The Grand Theatre appears on the 1922 Sanborn map of Reidsville. It had a balcony and a stage, and presented moving pictures and vaudeville.
DocSouth lists C. W. Davis as the manager of the Grand. An item about the opening of the Rockingham Theatre that was published in the January 4, 1930, issue of Motion Picture News (left column) praises C. W. Davis’s promotion of the opening of the Rockingham. It reproduces a small scan of one page of a special newspaper section about the theater. Unfortunately, it doesn’t give the date of the edition.
The Rockingham’s web site says that the theater was designed by Western Electric, but as far as I know that company only designed theater sound systems, and worked with theater architects advising them on ways to get the best acoustics for amplified sound in their theaters. I haven’t been able to discover the actual architect of the Grand or the Rockingham. It might be given in the newspaper section mentioned in the Motion Picture News item.
The June 23, 1917, issue of The Music Trade Review said: “M. Weigel has opened a new theatre, bearing his name, at Idaho City.”
Our interface with Google Maps has some quirks. If there is an incomplete address for a theater when it is first posted, or if street names have been changed or the street has been realigned or closed, or we post the wrong zip code, Google appears to make its best guess as to where the theater actually was, and that sometimes puts the pin icon and street view miles from the theater’s actual location. If a full address is later added, for some reason it doesn’t always fix the map.
Here is an actual street view of the Delta Athletic Club in the former Liberty Theatre building.
According to a tourist brochure about downtown Boise (PDF here), the building now housing the Blues Bouquet was built in 1910. The New Boz Theatre was on the ground floor, and the upper floors housed the Manitou Hotel. The Blues Bouquet moved in in 1975.
The brochure doesn’t mention any other names for the theater, but here is a 1937 photo from the Idaho State Historical Society with the name Granada on the marquee.
I agree with Stephen that this house should be listed as the Granada Theatre. If it were still set up as a theater I’d say go ahead and list it under the current name, even if it was strictly a live music venue, but as far as I can tell from the photos on the Internet, it has been completely reconfigured as a bar with no theater seating at all. Even the stage looks like a typical bar stage, not a theater stage.
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.
The finding aid to the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers indicates that the firm worked on the Winona Theatre during the years 1936-1940 and again in 1950. One of those projects was probably the one in which the original Romanesque Revival facade was covered by one in the Streamline Modern style.