Kimball's Peak Three
115 E. Pikes Peak Avenue,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80903
115 E. Pikes Peak Avenue,
Colorado Springs,
CO
80903
4 people
favorited this theater
Opened as the Peak Theatre in 1935, it was built for the Westland Theater group and had 400 seats. They showed first run movies. It was remodeled in 1949/1950 to the plans of architect Robert O. Boller of architectural firm Boller Brothers. It was remodeled again in the early-1960’s. The auditorium’s main feature were beautiful scenes of the ‘Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak’ highlighted by backlight. Their main film suppliers were Disney, Columbia, Republic, Monogram and others. They were still running a kids Saturday matinee until the mid-1960’s. When the Westland group went out of business, the Peak Theatre was sold to Commonwealth Theatres. It was eventually turned into a $ house showing re-runs. It was closed in 1988 and was the last downtown theatre.
In 1998, an entrepreneur Kimball came along to show movies the other majors would not touch. His venture was so successful, he had to build a wall between the main auditorium and the balcony and add a second screen. In 2012 he added a third screen in an area where old offices used to be on the second floor near the front of the building. He also remodeled the marquee and it puts out quite a light show at night. The theatre also has a coffee, expresso and wine bar attached to the main lobby. The Twin Peak features independent and foreign films. It also screens some select mainstream films.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber, Tom Daniels
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Have great memories of this classic place from my teen years, I remember that in late 70’s early 80’s they rarely got the big hits, losing out to the Cooper 3, or the Ute 70 usually. I recall at one time the marquis reading an X rated feature,“Catherine & Co” but I think for no more than a week. The last seats in the balcony felt miles away from the screen if you got stuck there as we did for a really bad flick called “Dirty Tricks” w/Kate Jackson & Elliot Gould (I think) Still a few great Rocky Horror Midnight Movie memories. Glad that now they can show top of the line non-commercial features.Hope it stays around for decades more.
Here is a March 1972 ad from the Colorado Springs Gazette:
http://tinyurl.com/leol2o
Some older shots of the Peak – first, from circa 1990:
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And then from February 1997:
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Nice photos.
It now has three screens. Upstairs offices were converted into the third screen.
Robert O. Boller was the architect for the 1949/1950 remodel of the Peak Theatre for Larry Starsmore CEO of Westland Theatre, INC.
Attn. Admins: Spelling should be changed to Kimball’s.
Also, circa 1940’s photo added courtesy of the AmeriCar the Beautiful Facebook page.
1961 photo added courtesy of The Denver Eye Facebook page.
1951 photo added courtesy of the AmeriCar The Beautiful Facebook page.
Visible in archive domestic footage at the beginning of Episode 2, “Riding the Tiger,” of the PBS documentary THE VIETNAM WAR, and appears to have been showing Peter Sellers in the 1962 film version of WALTZ OF THE TOREADORS. The Ute Theater can be glimpsed across the street.