Grand Theater
319 W. North Water Street,
New London,
WI
54961
319 W. North Water Street,
New London,
WI
54961
1 person
favorited this theater
The Grand Opera House’s opening night was February 19, 1895, with the play “Lost Paradise”. The architect was William Waters, whose trademark sunbursts and cross arrows can be found on the buildings west and south side. He also designed the Grand Opera House in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The building was saved in late 1990
s by the Friends of the Grand and Rogers Cinema. Rogers purchased the building and converted it into a four-plex. They also updated the sound and projection systems.
The exterior of the building has been restored to its original appearance.
Contributed by
Ed Wilke
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Recent comments (view all 5 comments)
Some of my photos of the Grand can be seen at.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edwilke/
The Grand is a nice theatre for a town of this size. Seeing a movie in the original auditorium is really cool, especially if you sit in the balcony. I saw a movie at the Grand in 1991, before it was “saved by Rogers”, it was quite a dump at that time. It had been seriously neglected for a long time, but was still cool at the time, if you like old single screens. I remember a group of employees from theatres in Appleton went there together. They left the door to the auditorium open, and light was coming in from the lobby. One of us went out to the lobby and asked if they could close the door. The woman responded “sorry, we need to make sure there are no problems with the movie”…We all laughed.
Here is a 1984 photo.
Very Old school looking.
The 1984 photo looks nothing like the photos of 2007 by Ed Wilke. They must have done a fantastic restoration job on the Grand during the 90’s.