Liberty Theatre

314 E. Yakima Avenue,
Yakima, WA 98901

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Additional Info

Architects: Henderson Ryan

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Liberty Theatre

The Liberty Theatre was opened on March 12, 1918 and seated 1,000. It was located on E. Yakima Avenue between S. 3rd Street and S. 4th Street. The theatre operated into the 1960’s before closing, and was afterward gutted and converted into a bank. It has since been demolished.

Contributed by Bryan

Recent comments (view all 5 comments)

elmsdale
elmsdale on April 7, 2010 at 11:43 am

This is probably another theater designed for Jensen and Von Herberg by Seattle architect Henderson Ryan.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on July 12, 2012 at 10:31 am

The Liberty Theatre at Yakima was one of the planned construction projects for Washington state listed in the April 5, 1919, issue of Domestic Engineering.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 6, 2013 at 7:44 pm

The 1919 project I cited in my previous comment was not for the original construction of the Liberty Theatre, but was probably for alterations. History Link says that the Liberty Theatre opened on March 12, 1918. It was the first theater built by Frederick Mercy, who by that time already controlled the four other theaters in Yakima: the Majestic, the Empire, the Avenue, and the Yakima. In 1920, he built the Mercy Theatre, later the Capitol.

Mercy must have overextended himself, as by 1920 he was operating the theaters in Yakima in partnership with Jensen and Von Herberg.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on September 15, 2017 at 2:07 pm

The April 13, 1918, issue of Motography had an article about the new Liberty Theatre in Yakima (scan at Google Books.)

When the new Liberty opened on March 12, 1918, an earlier house also called the Liberty was closed and subsequently demolished to make way for the Mercy (now Capitol) Theatre.

robboehm
robboehm on May 3, 2022 at 7:34 pm

Mercy also purchased the Lois Theatre in Toppenish, WA in 1926 and after remodeling it renamed it the Liberty. That theatre has a site on CT.

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