March Theater
104 E. Main Street,
Vermillion,
SD
57069
104 E. Main Street,
Vermillion,
SD
57069
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Contributed by
Ken McIntyre
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
Here is an undated photo of the March:
http://tinyurl.com/2ypfw8
There was a March Brothers theater circuit, headquartered in Vermillion, in the 1960s. Perhaps that had something to do with the name of this theater.
The 350 seat March Theatre opened in 1935 and closed in 1955. The theatre was named after the founders of the March Theatres.
The archives of the architectural firm of Liebenberg & Kaplan list an undated theater project at Vermillon under the name March. The photo of the theater linked by ken mc above does look like their earlier work, but seems quite old fashioned for the opening date of 1935. Perhaps this was an older building that was converted into a movie theater?
The November 30, 1946, issue of Boxoffice has an interesting item datelined Vermillion: “George March is the new owner of the March Theatre here. He purchased the house at an auction.”
Joe, I went back and did some more research on the March Theatre, according to the History of Vermillion since the great flood of 1881.
According to the history the building was constructed in 1910 as the City Hall No.2. by Eric Nylen. It was located on Main st Church St. It became known as the City Theatre in 1910 with ceating given at 650. The theatre put on musicals and live productions including its first performance of “Little Johnny Jones”, a musical comedy which was touring at the time. In 1918 the name was changed to the Orpheum and moving pictures began to show along with stage shows. The movies won out over the stage shows and the stage performances were eliminated. The theatre was leased to J.H. March on Feb. 4, 1928. in 1935 it was renamed the March Theatre and by then the City Hall had moved to a newly built location. George March, sone of J.H. March bought the building at an auction for $22,150. In 1955 the building was sold by March and was demolished in 1958 for a Diamon-X gas station. Again the property was sold in 1978 to the National Bank of So. Dakota. So the photo in the comments was the original City Hall No. 2 that housed dthe theatre.
The header should hava AKA’s City Theatre, Orpheum Theatre, address Main St. at Church St. Closed/Demolished.
It’s too bad they knocked that building down. That was a very nice Colonial Revival facade. Liebenberg and Kaplan’s undated work on the building must have involved only minor alterations as far as the exterior was concerned if it was done before that photo was taken.
Should have AKA’s City Theatre, Orpheum Theatre
Address:
104 E. Main St.
Vermillion, SD. 57069
Nice old photo of The MARCHS vertical sign.