Geneva Theatre
319 W. State Street,
Geneva,
IL
60134
319 W. State Street,
Geneva,
IL
60134
1 person
favorited this theater
Opened in 1928 as the Fargo Theatre, the name was changed to Geneva Theatre in 1940 and it became part of the Valos Circuit.
It was twinned in 1987 and closed in 2000. Currently a store operates in the former lobby.
Contributed by
Dave Wiegers
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
Is this theatre closed? If so, what gives?
And now I see that it was “twinned”!
I went past this place recently. Other than the marquee, there is little evidence that this was a cinema. And the marquee appears to be used for public service announcements.
1983:
View link
1983 Photo
1984 Photo
The Fargo Theatre was damaged by a fire on March 19, 1937. The April 3 issue of Boxoffice said that repairs were proceeding rapidly and the theater would reopen soon. The theater was owned by Charles Fargo and was then being operated by the Fred Anderson circuit.
The latest mention of the Fargo I’ve found is from 1939, and the earliest mention of the Geneva is from 1943.
The Valos circuit had the Geneva Theatre extensively remodeled in 1947, and an illustrated article about the theater by the decorator on the project, Hanns Teichert, was published in Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of June 19, 1948.
Here’s one of my pictures of the Geneva/Fargo from a couple years ago.
View link
A 3m Geneva was installed after being removed from the state/fargo theatre in sycamore.
Daily Herald, 11/15/2009)
Geneva marquee serves as community bulletin board
It’s not exactiy “getting your name up in lights,” but it sure is a good way to get the word out about a community event and remind people about what is happening in Geneva.
The marquee of the old Geneva Theater displays messages about school, park district, chamber of commerce, cultural arts or charitable organization events and fundraisers.
And it all happens through Pagans, a company owned by downtown developer Joe Stanton.
“It used to be that the chamber of commerce took care of the marquee, but Joe noticed that the women who work for the chamber were always the ones having to get up on the ladder to change the message and he just didn’t think that was right,” said Debbie Draus, office manager at Pagans.
“We have a maintenance person who works on that theater building anyway, so it was easier forus and we volunteered to take it over and do something for events that bring the community together,” Draus added.
The chamber, library, schools and parks get first dibs on the marquee when they have events taking place, Draus said of the free billing on the marquee.
“It’s not for stores to promote a sale or anything like that, but it is for events that would bring people into town, and the stores benefit from that,” Draus added. “We have a lot of requests for use of the marquee, and organizations are finding that it’s booked well in advance."
Any planners who feel their event might qualify for marquee placement can check in with Pagans at (630) 208-0319.
I lived in “Old Town” Geneva, Il., for 10 years. My three children and I have very fond memories of this theater. It was a great neighborhood gathering place and usually showed family friendly movies. I moved from Geneva in 1995 and was very saddened to hear the theater had closed in 2000. I think that when a small town loses its downtown movie theater, the downtown area will eventually suffer an economic downturn. This movie theater and downtown State Street were featured in the film, “The Road To Perdition.”