Washington Theatre
1346 19th Street,
Granite City,
IL
62040
1346 19th Street,
Granite City,
IL
62040
2 people
favorited this theater
The Washington Theatre was built in 1910 for the Lilian Amusement Co., and sat about 1,200. Located at 1330 19th Street, it was last operated by the Franchon & Marco circuit, and was closed and torn down in 1923 when a new Washington Theatre was built nearby on the site of the Washington Airdome.
The second Washington Theatre was designed by R. Levine & Company and was operated by the St. Louis Amusement Co./Arthur Theatres after they acquired the Francon & Marco circuit. In December 1928 it was taken over by the Skouras Theatres chain. Still later, the theater was part of the Mid-America Theatres chain, just before it closed.
The theater contained a Barton organ, which was removed after a blaze in 1946, when the theater was slightly remodeled. The theater was remodeled again in 1975. The Washington Theatre operated until 1980.
It was briefly used afterwards for live events but razed in 1993 to make way for a bus depot.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 32 comments)
Was this theatre originally a live theatre?
In the 3rd quarter of 1910, construction began on the Washington Theatre. This was announced in a July, 1910 article from the local newspaper the “Granite City Press Record.”
Initially, there were plans to build a 3 story brick building at the intersection of Cleveland, 19th and “B” streets in Granite City as announced by the architect, G.Y. Murphy. This building would include the theatre, a hotel and business rooms. The plan never materialized but instead another development from Henry C. Buchterkerchen who was a Staunton, IL native was erected at 19th & “E” St.
The building contract was awarded to M.L. Denham and Co. of St. Louis Mo. and would be a two story brick building. The theatre was to be located on the alley between State St. and “E” Street, which was later known as Edison St., on the south side of 19th.
It was leased to L. Landau Jr. of St. Louis Mo. who was secretary and treasurer of a large vaudeville circuit and the president of the Columbia Amusement Company. The theatre was built primarily for motion picture and vaudeville use but also for conventions and other public meetings.
The original plans for the theatre were to include a seating capacity of 800 on the ground level and also include a large balcony. The building was to be 50X100 feet and have a 25 foot stage.
When the theatre opened on Saturday December 10, 1910, it was managed by C.H Dodge. Admission was ten cents for each seat and the program would change three times every week. The schedule would be Saturday-Sunday-Monday and Tuesday with new programs starting on Wednesday and again on Friday.
In February of 1911, Washington Theatre manager C.H. Dodge announced the planning of a “Summer Garden” at an expense of $4,000 to be constructed and opened on or about May 1, 1911 with a capacity of 1,200. The outdoor stage was 40 by 60 feet.
In June of 1911, plans were announced to enlarge the Washington theatre per the architect Charles Pauly & Sons. The plan calls for adding 500 seats increasing the theatre capacity to 1,300 seats. The rear wall was torn out and the orchestra pit set back to make room for the additional seats. The new stage was to be 50 feet wide by 30 feet deep and 30 feet high and would then be larger than the stage outside in the Airdome (Garden).
By 1914, the theatre manager was J.T. Gray.
The photo is of the original Washington Theatre, not the most current Washington. The photos that Lost Memory linked to on April 21, 2009 are photos of the Washington Theatre for this page.
The address of the original Washington Theatre was 1332 19th St., and in later years after a rebuild it was moved to a different lot on the same block and the address was 1346. If you click on the photo’s tab you can see another picture that I posted of the theatre in it’s final location. The default picture for the overview page just happens to be the picture that is viewed the most times from the “photo” page.
I don’t understand why the old Washington would be the default photo since this page is for the newer Wasington Theatre at 1346 19th St. Someone should create a page for the Old Washington Theatre and the photo should be posted there.
Chuck, back in 2004 you posted a comment about some pictures of the theatre of the front and the lobby that you took. Can you please post these?
I’m puzzled by the references to the “Franchon and Marco circuit” and then “Francon and Marco Circuit” in this theater’s description. If it is meant to read Fanchon and Marco, it can’t possibly be true that they had anything to do with the first Washington Theatre. Fanchon and Marco were teenagers (born 1892 and 1894 respectively) in 1910 when the first Washington was built, and living in California.
Fanchon and Marco would not have built the second Washington Theatre either, as in 1923 they were still producing packaged stage shows, primarily for theaters on the west coast, and had not yet gone into direct operation of theaters (though it’s possible that their older brother Rube had begun building the Los Angeles area circuit he operated, South Side Theatres, by that time.)
As far as I’ve been able to determine, the Fanchon & Marco circuit began its partnership with Harry Arthur in 1934, when rapidly expanding F&M took a long-term lease on the St. Louis Fox Theatre, which Arthur had taken over a few years earlier when William Fox went broke. That was when Arthur joined F&M as general manager of their St. Louis operations. He did not acquire the circuit at that time, so much as the circuit acquired him along with the lease on the Fox.
Arthur might have taken complete control of F&M’s Midwestern operations later, as Fanchon Simon and Marco Wolf concentrated more on their other activities and their Los Angeles area theaters, but I haven’t found much information about that period of the company’s history.
Fanchon & Marco came into the St. Louis-market in October 1933 when they took over operation of the St. Louis Theatre. In January 1934 they took over operation of the Fox Theatre. Along the line they contracted with St. Louis Amusement for the operation of that firm’s theatres. In 1948 F&M acquired St. Louis Amusement. In 1957/58 the Arthur brothers acquired the St. Louis holdings of F&M, becoming Arthur Enterprises.
As for the Granite City Washington, it was first noted as a St. Louis Amusement operation late in 1929.
Thanks for the time line on Fanchon & Marco’s St. Louis operations, JAlex. All I had was a few fragments I’ve picked up from various sources, some of which contradict each other.
And I’ll second Chuck’s call for a separate page for the first Washington Theatre. RetroMike’s comment of June 14 provides plenty of details for one.
The December 22, 1928, issue of Motion Picture News said that the Washington Theatre in Granite City had recently been bought by Skouras Brothers Enterprises. Skouras Brothers planned to expend about $25,000 for improvements to the house, including the installation of Vitaphone sound equipment. The value of the sale was not released, but MPM said that the estimated value of the Washington Theatre was $300,000.