State Theatre

SethG on May 19, 2020 at 9:10 pm

I don’t think the history is accurate. Reviewing the Sanborn maps, here is what I have come up with: 1893 – Two-story wood-frame feed store on the corner, only on the south lot. 1899 – Building is now the Stever Hotel, with the notation that it is to be brick veneered. 1908 – Building now shown as brick with wooden interior structure (named Grand Central Hotel), northern section added completely in brick, housing a vacant bar and hotel rooms upstairs. 1913 – Hotel now called Pete’s Home Hotel, movie theater in northern section (which I imagine would be 11 Main), which also contains part of the hotel office and a bathroom. 1926 – Theater now in southern section, which is shown entirely in brick. Old theater is two storefronts. Very deep balcony with square cutout in the front. Stage and scenery shown, and two small brick rooms have been added at the back which may have been dressing rooms. Marquee is a small metal rectangular structure.

I can’t swear that the old feed store structure was part of the theater on the 1926 map. Fires were very frequent, but the footprint is roughly the same. At any rate, extensive reconstruction of the hotel area would have been required to create the theater. The architecture of the present facade looks no later than about 1915 to me.