Co-Ed Theatre
1401 S.W. Lane Street,
Topeka,
KS
66604
1401 S.W. Lane Street,
Topeka,
KS
66604
No one has favorited this theater yet
The Co-Ed Theatre was in operation since 1937, and through to beyond 1950. In 2009, where the theatre once stood is all new construction going on.
Contributed by
Chuck
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 4 comments)
1936 photo of the Coed Theatre.
View link
This article in the 2/12/06 Topeka Capitol-Journal mentions the Co-Ed Theatre:
“Question: What was the name of the former theater at 1401 S.W. Lane, where Latta Whitlow now has its offices? —– S.M., Topeka
Answer: It was the Co-Ed Theatre, according to Topeka directories.
It operated at that location from 1938 to 1955 and also housed other businesses before Latta-Whitlow moved there in 1970.
Some of the occupants were the Community Center, Jake Simon’s Barber Shop, Johnson Music Mart, State Farm Insurance Co., Marjie’s Bakery and Roto-Rooter Sewer Service.
The location served first as the home for Topeka Fire Station No. 5 from 1926 to 1931 and also was the longtime home of the Topeka Auction Co".
American Classic Images was probably dating the photo by the 1936 movie on the Co-Ed’s marquee, but the theater must have been running it very late in its release. Boxoffice Magazine of September 4, 1937, said that the Co-Ed was nearing completion and was scheduled to open around September 15 that year. The Co-Ed was being built for Simon Galitzki.
The Co-Ed was closed during the summer of 1954, some time after Simon Galitzki died. His widow, Sarah, reopened the house that fall, after having a CinemaScope screen installed, and was still operating the house in early 1955, according to an article in the February 26 issue of Boxoffice that year. However, by the end of the year Mrs. Galitzki was advertising bits of the theater’s equipment for sale in the Clearing House section of various issues of Boxoffice, so the Co-Ed’s life as a theater apparently ended about that time.
Boxoffice of December 3, 1938, said that the Co-Ed Theatre in Topeka had been designed by architect Trevor C. Jones. After working on four theaters that were mentioned in Boxoffice, he vanishes from the magazine. I suspect that, after the last of these projects, when he was Robert Boller’s associate on the Tivoli Theatre at Maryville, Missouri (not yet listed at Cinema Treasures, but here’s a Boxoffice article about it), he might have joined Boller’s firm and no longer worked under his own name.