The November 1920 Sanborn shows the Strand, with no mention of it being closed. The address seems to have been 108 E High, although the entrance may have been on the SW corner of the building, facing N Main. The theater replaced a wooden livery stable that appears on the 1911 map. The stage was curved inward in the center, and an outward curved balcony is noted.
It would be nice if someone could write up the history for this theater. Some of these really old listings have no information at all. I saw a movie here in 2015, and the marquee is pretty fantastic at night. The auditorium is actually very broad and shallow. I think the balcony was closed at that point.
The 1946 Sanborn (an update of the 1924 map) still shows this as Brown’s Theatre, and the marquee is shown as an old-fashioned rectangular awning. Not sure when the neon went up, or when the name changes happened.
Not sure of the significance, but the little stone up near the roof in the center of the facade names the building as the Deweese Block. He may have been the original owner, or perhaps just had the building constructed and leased the theater space.
As David pointed out a while ago, the film being shown in the photo is from 1927. The 1924 map shows the space as a store. Address should be on N Main, although it has mapped correctly.
Needs to be marked as demolished. The building can be seen on the horribly blurry 2009 streetview, but this magnificent structure was gone by 2015. It was built sometime before 1887 as the Taylor Block, and was home to the masonic lodge on the third floor, above storefronts and offices.
The theater building was constructed sometime before 1894 as a hardware and furniture store. Between 1907 and 1914, the western half became a theater. It’s possible that this operated until a 1937 remodel replaced the facade and expanded the theater into both sides of the building.
I just got rid of an old record set of hers that I bought for no good reason, not even having a record player.
But to the point, I suppose there might have been space in the entry of this building for those things, but it’s still very strange. The school must have been open, likely until the ‘70s or maybe later. I thought he might have had some arrangement with the school board, but actually modifying the structure?
If this really was in the high school auditorium, the address must be 608 C St. I’m a little dubious, because the auditorium was the newest building of the complex before the rest of it was demolished, and has sort of a WPA look to it. The ‘newest’ Sanborn map, from 1918, shows only a smaller old school nearer the corner of 6th and D. There was then no gym or auditorium. The older building was later cut down to one story, and is still visible on the satellite view and the 2013 streetview. As I said, today’s visit revealed that everything has been torn down but the auditorium, which is now in really awful shape. I’ll provide a picture, and maybe someone will have more definite information.
I think the address must have been 106. Downtown is totally trashed, and so many buildings are missing that it’s hard to count lots, but the 1918 Sanborn shows a one story tile brick structure with a tin cornice showing ‘moving pictures’. It would have been the fourth building south of C St, on the east side. That lot was partially occupied by a little wooden bandstand on the 1909 map. The location today is a gravel lot used as storage by a hardware store.
By the way, there’s a typo in the AKAs, ‘Sliver’ for Silver.
This will have to be marked as demolished. The spectacular bank building is nowhere to be seen. This must be the 600 block, east side, where the dumpy one-story thing is today. Address was likely 604 or thereabouts.
One of those names at least must be an AKA for the opera house. I didn’t see a third theater anywhere on the maps, and downtown really isn’t that large.
1914 Sanborn shows that the original building was a one-story structure, which appears to be slightly wider than the current building. It appears that the eastern wall may have slanted slightly outward toward the rear, as the building was then along the banks of the canal, which has been filled in in this area. The 1933 map shows a large rectangular awning/marquee. 2 internal hydrants supplied with 200' of 2" hose are noted as ‘attended’, but I guess they didn’t help.
The very blurry picture only shows a little annex on the side. The main building is just to the left of this, and has a rather bland fake old facade. 94 seems absurdly small, but appears to be correct from pictures of the auditorium. Looks like it closed around 1955, and reopened sometime after 1996 after various other uses.
Sorry, slight typo, it’s the 1925 map that shows it as a store. Not that it’s really important, but the garage door seems to have been added by 1937, when this space had become what must have been a really tiny dealership.
SethG
commented about
Town Hallon
Jul 24, 2020 at 1:27 pm
John Fryberger of the Toledo-based Spitzer and Co. was the architect for this structure.
Not that I think the address is correct, but on the off chance that it fell between the 1920-1940 gap in maps, I’ve added a 2015 picture of the Fisher Block. The ground floor has been run together with half of the neighboring building, and it is a Hallmark store.
The November 1920 Sanborn shows the Strand, with no mention of it being closed. The address seems to have been 108 E High, although the entrance may have been on the SW corner of the building, facing N Main. The theater replaced a wooden livery stable that appears on the 1911 map. The stage was curved inward in the center, and an outward curved balcony is noted.
It would be nice if someone could write up the history for this theater. Some of these really old listings have no information at all. I saw a movie here in 2015, and the marquee is pretty fantastic at night. The auditorium is actually very broad and shallow. I think the balcony was closed at that point.
The 1946 Sanborn (an update of the 1924 map) still shows this as Brown’s Theatre, and the marquee is shown as an old-fashioned rectangular awning. Not sure when the neon went up, or when the name changes happened.
For research purposes, in 1907 the address was 717, there being no east/west division on any streets.
Theater would have been on the right.
For research purposes, in 1907 the address was 836-838, there being no north-south division on any of the streets.
Not sure of the significance, but the little stone up near the roof in the center of the facade names the building as the Deweese Block. He may have been the original owner, or perhaps just had the building constructed and leased the theater space.
As David pointed out a while ago, the film being shown in the photo is from 1927. The 1924 map shows the space as a store. Address should be on N Main, although it has mapped correctly.
Needs to be marked as demolished. The building can be seen on the horribly blurry 2009 streetview, but this magnificent structure was gone by 2015. It was built sometime before 1887 as the Taylor Block, and was home to the masonic lodge on the third floor, above storefronts and offices.
The 1946 update of the 1924 Sanborn still shows the name as Majestic, but this was likely just a failure to update the name.
The theater building was constructed sometime before 1894 as a hardware and furniture store. Between 1907 and 1914, the western half became a theater. It’s possible that this operated until a 1937 remodel replaced the facade and expanded the theater into both sides of the building.
I just got rid of an old record set of hers that I bought for no good reason, not even having a record player.
But to the point, I suppose there might have been space in the entry of this building for those things, but it’s still very strange. The school must have been open, likely until the ‘70s or maybe later. I thought he might have had some arrangement with the school board, but actually modifying the structure?
If this really was in the high school auditorium, the address must be 608 C St. I’m a little dubious, because the auditorium was the newest building of the complex before the rest of it was demolished, and has sort of a WPA look to it. The ‘newest’ Sanborn map, from 1918, shows only a smaller old school nearer the corner of 6th and D. There was then no gym or auditorium. The older building was later cut down to one story, and is still visible on the satellite view and the 2013 streetview. As I said, today’s visit revealed that everything has been torn down but the auditorium, which is now in really awful shape. I’ll provide a picture, and maybe someone will have more definite information.
I think the address must have been 106. Downtown is totally trashed, and so many buildings are missing that it’s hard to count lots, but the 1918 Sanborn shows a one story tile brick structure with a tin cornice showing ‘moving pictures’. It would have been the fourth building south of C St, on the east side. That lot was partially occupied by a little wooden bandstand on the 1909 map. The location today is a gravel lot used as storage by a hardware store.
By the way, there’s a typo in the AKAs, ‘Sliver’ for Silver.
These sort of contributions are useless.
This will have to be marked as demolished. The spectacular bank building is nowhere to be seen. This must be the 600 block, east side, where the dumpy one-story thing is today. Address was likely 604 or thereabouts.
One of those names at least must be an AKA for the opera house. I didn’t see a third theater anywhere on the maps, and downtown really isn’t that large.
1914 Sanborn shows that the original building was a one-story structure, which appears to be slightly wider than the current building. It appears that the eastern wall may have slanted slightly outward toward the rear, as the building was then along the banks of the canal, which has been filled in in this area. The 1933 map shows a large rectangular awning/marquee. 2 internal hydrants supplied with 200' of 2" hose are noted as ‘attended’, but I guess they didn’t help.
The very blurry picture only shows a little annex on the side. The main building is just to the left of this, and has a rather bland fake old facade. 94 seems absurdly small, but appears to be correct from pictures of the auditorium. Looks like it closed around 1955, and reopened sometime after 1996 after various other uses.
Sorry, slight typo, it’s the 1925 map that shows it as a store. Not that it’s really important, but the garage door seems to have been added by 1937, when this space had become what must have been a really tiny dealership.
John Fryberger of the Toledo-based Spitzer and Co. was the architect for this structure.
Added a shot of downtown in which the Star can just barely be seen.
Added a picture of the Kerr Block, in which can be seen (on the right side) the nasty facade of what was the Rosenbush Block, later the Miami.
Added a picture of the Kerr Block in which the repellent Miami appears at right.
Stupidly neglected to get a picture of this building, which has a certain scabby charm.
Not that I think the address is correct, but on the off chance that it fell between the 1920-1940 gap in maps, I’ve added a 2015 picture of the Fisher Block. The ground floor has been run together with half of the neighboring building, and it is a Hallmark store.