Grand Theatre
26 N. Sixth Street,
Keokuk,
IA
52632
26 N. Sixth Street,
Keokuk,
IA
52632
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The Grand Theatre was built in 1924. It was built on the site of a former Opera House which was also known as the Baker-Dodge Theatre. The Opera House/Baker-Dodge Theatre burned down On Dec. 7, 1923. Opening night of the Grand Theatre was on Tuesday January 27, 1925, and had a seating capacity for 1,030.
In the 1940’s it is listed as being operated by the Frisina Amusement Co.
The Grand Theatre stopped showing movies and closed in 1957. In 1987, it was restored and is now used for live entertainment, conventions and other events.
Contributed by
Chuck & Ken
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
This is the website for the Grand Theater.
Seating Capacity, main floor…………….336 + 8 handicap seating = 344
Seating Capacity, balcony…………………. 420 + 16 side boxes = 436
Total Theatre Seating Capacity…………780
LM, thanks for the website link, really great web site for a small town theatre.
It must be a relatively new website or we would have included it when we added this theater. Big difference in the seat count between now and when it was a movie theater.
1984 photo of the Grand Theatre.
View link
1982 Photo
Need to update the seat count given by LM on 2/6/09., Total current seaating capacity is 780.
The Grand Theatre was featured as the Iowa Backroads Photo of the Day in August 2010; the photo was taken June 20, 2009.
The Grand has an official web site.
The photo currently on display on this page depicts the original Keokuk Opera House which was destroyed by a fire in 1923 and replaced by the Grand Theatre. The photos section has an image of the 1925 Grand Theatre, posted by Don Lewis, which would be a better choice to display on this page.
Although a couple of travel-oriented web sites and any number of link farms (and Wikipedia, not surprisingly) say that Mere F. Baker designed the Grand Theatre, this page at the Grand’s official web site says only that “[i]n a matter of a few days after the destruction Merle F. Baker, a leading businessman in Keokuk, was determined to rebuild the Grand Theatre as a community theatre continuing with vaudeville stage shows.” I’ve found no evidence anywhere else on the Internet that Baker was an architect. He was actually the Baker of Baker-Dodge Theatres, the company that operated the Grand and a number of other Keokuk movie houses.
This house actually opened as the New Grand Theatre. Baker-Dodge had been operating the old Keokuk Opera House under the name Grand Theatre at the time it was destroyed. Although I’ve been unable to discover the architect of the New Grand, the Keokuk Opera House was designed by Chicago theater architect Oscar Cobb prior to 1885.
The February 26, 1921, issue of The American Contractor has a notice that a $35,000 house was to be built at Keokuk for M. F. Baker. This was probably Merle F. Baker. It was being designed by the Chicago firm of Tallmadge & Watson. I would expect that, if Baker had been an architect, he’d have designed his own house. It seems more likely than ever that Baker was merely the co-owner of the Grand Theatre, not its architect.