Grand Theater
Chatham Street,
Independence,
IA
50644
Chatham Street,
Independence,
IA
50644
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The Gedney Opera House was built in 1892. It later became the Grand Theater showing movies, and was destroyed by fire in 1945.
Contributed by
Billy Holcomb / Don Lewis / Billy Smith
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Was open in the mid-1930’s thru the late-1940’s. Located on the corner of Chatham & State Streets.
Old postcard view: View link
The theater in this Romanesque Revival building was originally called the Gedney Opera House, according to this web page form the Buchanan County Historical Society. The Gedney Opera House was listed in various editions of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide. The Guide gave the seating capacity of this ground floor house as 850.
A History of Buchanan County published in 1914 says that the Gedney Hotel and Opera House were built in 1892, and that the project was designed by Chicago architect G.W. Sunderland. The Opera House opened on August 23, 1892, with a performance of Auber’s opera “Fra Diavolo,” presented by the Andrews Opera Company.
The historical society web site says that the Grand Theatre and Gedney Hotel block burned to the ground on March 3, 1945. The Malek Theatre was subsequently built on the site.