Columbia Theatre

1414 2nd Avenue,
Seattle, WA 98101

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Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on October 7, 2013 at 8:06 pm

John and James Clemmer originally announced that their new moving picture theater on Second Avenue would be called the New Empress. The October 28, 1911, issue of The Moving Picture World had this story:

“Seattle, Wash. — A modern, up-to-date $100,000 exclusive photoplay house on Second Avenue is the latest big addition to Seattle’s theatrical enterprises. The new theater will be located at 1412 Second Avenue, between Union and Pike Streets. John H. Clemmer, owner of two theaters in Spokane, and his son, James Q. Clemmer, owner of the Dream Theater in this city, are financing the moving picture venture, and they assert that their new house will be the finest of its kind in the West, and will be opened to the public about March 1. Plans for the new theater are already being drawn by Architect E. W. Houghton, of this city. The theater will be 60 feet by 108 feet, and will seat about 1,500 people. This new enterprise will be known as the New Empress Theater.”
Edwin W. Houghton was very busy around this time, designing several theaters in Seattle and the northwest in the early 1910s. From 1909 to 1911, B. Marcus Pritica was a draftsman in Houghton’s office, but I don’t know if he was there long enough in 1911 to have worked on the Clemmer Theatre.

Will Dunklin
Will Dunklin on June 13, 2013 at 5:40 pm

The Clemmer Theatre had a III/28 Estey organ installed in 1912. Ten years later, when the hall became The Columbia Theatre, the Estey was removed and a II/9 style 210 Wurlitzer organ, opus 533, was installed.

William Creswell
William Creswell on April 3, 2012 at 7:28 pm

The building that housed the Clemmer/Columbia theatre has long since been demolished.