Strand Theatre
E. Wayne Street & S. Clinton Street,
Fort Wayne,
IN
46802
E. Wayne Street & S. Clinton Street,
Fort Wayne,
IN
46802
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The Empress Theatre opened in the fall of 1912. By 1917 it had been renamed the Strand Theatre. It was in operation under that name as a moving picture theater at least as late as 1927. The Strand Theatre’s site, at the southeast corner of Wayne Street and Clinton Street, is today part of a grassy open plaza fronting One Summit Square.
Contributed by
Joe Vogel
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Here is an early interior photo of the Empress Theatre.
PLEASE CHANGE ADDRESS TO:
SOUTHEAST CORNER WAYNE STREET & CLINTON STREET
Owned by W.C. Quimby Enterprises.
Need more info and more photos.
I should have said the theater was on the Southwest Corner of Wayne and Clinton.
Open 1912-~1945? Can anyone verify the exact dates?
A book about Fort Wayne published by the Fort Wayne News in 1913 attributes the design of the Empress Theatre to one of the town’s leading architects of the period, John M. E. Riedel. He also designed the Lyric Theatre.
In its early years, the Empress presented Sullivan & Considine vaudeville, and as Lee DeCamp was the supervising architect for the circuit, it’s possible that he also had a hand in designing the Empress. In 1912, DeCamp had his main office in Grand Rapids, Michigan, about 150 miles from Fort Wayne.