Ritz Theatre
217 North 13th Street,
Centerville,
IA
52544
217 North 13th Street,
Centerville,
IA
52544
1 person
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Opened in the early-190'0s as the Majestic Theatre in a late-19th Century building originally housing a newspaper’s offices, the theater later was renamed the Orpheum Theatre. After a remodeling in 1926, the Orpheum Theatre was renamed the Ritz Theatre.
Designed on the exterior in Mission Revival style, the interior was decorated in a Renaissance/Neo-Classical design complete with gilded plasterwork and a painted sky on the auditorium ceiling. The Ritz Theatre also contained a small orchestra pit, stage and balcony. After being a popular venue for movies and live entertainment for decades, the Ritz Theatre closed, and the building was occupied by everything from a drug store to a bridal shop to a church.
In 2000, the Appanoose County Coalition for the Arts was created, and took over ownership of the Ritz Theatre with the intent to restore the theater to its 1920’s glory. A five part renovation plan was begun in August 2001. Once complete, the Ritz Theatre will be used for performing arts, classic film screenings and for rental purposes.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 15 comments)
A Kilgen theater organ opus 1531 was installed in the Orpheum Theater in 1913.
Here is another photo of the Ritz.
Some additional information here. I don’t know why there’s a discepancy in the two addresses, though.
http://tinyurl.com/3jfp38
The address given at that link is the correct address. Function is performing arts. Ritz website
119 East Van Buren Street
Centerville, IA 52544
641.895.2515
The Iowa Historical Society gives the address on E. Van Buren St. also.
From the September 29th post above:
It was at the Ritz Theatre that people came to see the movie that had been filmed on location on Centerville’s Town Square. The stars of the 1921 silent movie were Norma Talmadge and Harrison Ford. The title was Loves Redemption: Its a Wonderful Thing.
Harrison looks good for his age….
I’ve seen Harrison Ford in quite a few silent movie listings. He must have been popular in his day.
I thought that he was very good in “Star Wars”. :P
This is a nice photo of the Ritz.
Plans for the restoration of the Ritz Theatre were done by the Des Moines firm Wetherell Ericsson Architects. The successor firm to Wetherell & Harrison, designers of many theaters in Iowa, Wetherell Ericsson merged with RDG Planning Design in 2007. RDG’s web site has this page about the Ritz. They give 2012 as the expected year for the completion of the project.