Queen Theatre

According to the Fort Stockton Pioneer, in 1914 the Queen Theatre was once “the pride of West Texas, the first theatre building erected exclusively for that purpose in the entire section of the state.”

As for the opening date, the Pioneer may have been off by two Years. A deeper search into their archives show that it opened as the first Grand Theatre on March 31, 1916, and was renamed the Queen Theatre in 1923. The Hoef Brothers were the owners.

The building owned by OK Theatres was used until they opened the new Grand Theatre in 1929. In December of 1939 it was reported that the building, now a dilapidated and abandoned firetrap, was to be razed in 1940.

The Film Daily Year Book of 1926 lists the Queen Theatre with 300 seats.

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Joe Vogel on January 1, 2016 at 9:51 pm

This early notice which was probably about the project that became the Grand Theatre appeared in The Moving Picture World of March 11, 1916:

“Fort Stockton, Tex.—Edwin and Arthur Hoefs of Pecos have closed a deal with H. H. Butz and James Rooney for a 40-foot front lot in Fort Stockton, on which they will erect at once an up-to-date opera house.”

The project was also noted in the April 22 issue of Music Trade Review, though that publication described it more modestly (and more accurately) as a motion picture theater costing $6,000.