Capitol Theater
172 West Berry Street,
Fort Wayne,
IN
46802
172 West Berry Street,
Fort Wayne,
IN
46802
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The Majestic Theater is known to have been in operation as late as the 1920’s.
By 1941, it had been renamed Capitol Theater, and it continued until at least 1950.
Contributed by
Billy Holcomb / Don Lewis / Billy Smith
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Recent comments (view all 7 comments)
Address for the Majestic Theatre 172 West Berry St. Ft. Wayne, In. 46802
Does anyone know whether this building still exists?
If googlerr mapping is correct the theatre has been demolished.
From 1910 a cold wintry postcard view of the MajesticTheater in Fort Wayne.
A history of Fort Wayne published in 1917 says that the Majestic Theatre opened on October 24, 1904. The postcard Don Lewis linked to above also shows the Airdome theater that was tucked into the “L” of the Majestic’s auditorium and entrance buildings.
The facade of the Majestic had been altered by the time this photo was made, perhaps in the 1920s.
The Allen County Public Library also has this interior shot from 1906.
Here is an aerial view of downtown Fort Wayne about 1950, showing the Majestic building at left. The caption identifies it as the Civic Theatre, but Civic was an aka for the Palace Theatre, so the caption is probably in error, unless both the Palace and the Majestic used the name Civic at different times. They probably meant to write Capitol Theatre, though.
Strange, but the billboard says Civic.
I ought to have used the zoom feature on that photo. It does say Civic Theatre above the billboard, and so does a smaller vertical sign over the entrance.
I searched the Allen County photo web site, and can’t find any photos of a Capitol Theatre.
The history section of the web site of the Fort Wayne Civic Theatre says that the company was founded in 1927 as the Fort Wayne Community Theatre Guild, changed its name to Old Fort Players in 1931, moved into the Majestic Theatre that same year, changed its name to Fort Wayne Civic Theatre in 1940, and moved their operations to the Palace Theatre in 1957. The Civic Theatre company mounted 231 productions at the Majestic over the years. The page doesn’t say what became of the Majestic after the Civic Theatre company moved to the Palace.
Assuming that the theater was renamed for the company in 1940, and retained that name until the company moved out in 1957, then it couldn’t have been called the Capitol during the period when our introduction currently says it was.
A list of Indiana’s movie theaters available here in PDF format has a Capitol Theatre in Fort Wayne, with the AKA Little Cinema, but the only additional information is that it has been demolished. The Majestic is also on the list, with no AKA’s.