Gennett Theatre

Joe Vogel on February 7, 2012 at 1:39 am

The September 9, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had an item about the Washington Theatre:

“Richmond, Ind.—A new theater, to be known as the Washington, will be opened in Richmond within the next few weeks. The men who are back of the project are Dr. Charles E. Duffln, H. H. Englebert and Clarence Finney. Roy Parks, who recently severed his connections with the Arcade theater, probably will manage the new house.”

The house was remodeled and converted to movies before being renamed the Washington, though. The March 18, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World had said that the remodeled and redecorated Gennett Theatre in Richmond had reopened with “Birth of a Nation” as its first attraction.

Until the exact address can be found, the location of this theater should be changed to N. 8th and N. A Streets (the theater faced 8th Street, but the real estate office now on the site uses an A Street address.) Richmond has multiple streets of the same number and letter, with the result that Google Maps is putting the pin icon at NW A Street and NW 8th Street, over a mile west of the theater’s actual location. I’ve updated Street View to the correct location, but the map pin is currently still at the wrong spot.

Broan on November 10, 2008 at 10:56 pm

Richmond Ind Oscar Cobb of Chicago is preparing plans for a $25.000 theater to be erected on the site of the Bradley opera house Stone; an Illustrated Magazine

lostmemory on September 6, 2007 at 7:21 pm

A Marr & Colton theater organ was installed in the Washington Theater in 1925.