Strand Theater
1330 E. Washington Street,
Indianapolis,
IN
46201
1330 E. Washington Street,
Indianapolis,
IN
46201
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The Strand Theater was built on the site of the old Vista Theater. The Strand Theater opened on January 15, 1916 with “Of Mice and Men”. With seating listed at 990 it was part of the Bair Theater chain. The theater went through two organs, the first was a 2 manual Moller and the second a Wurlitzer. The Strand Theater closed on May 27, 1956 with Susan Hayward in “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” & Scott Brady in “The Vanishing American”. The building is now occupied by Printers Supply.
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Chuck
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
I know this building and is super close to downtown. It is being used by Ivy Tech vocational school for educational purposes (I think). Not the best use BUT at least its still standing. I’d love to bring a buyer to this property, one that would embrace the past use.
The building is currently Harvest Moon Hydroponics Indoor Gardening Center.
Lost Memory’s photo link has gone missing, but I think this is probably the same photo. The description with the photo mistakenly gives the location and history of the other Strand Theatre (the Capitol Theatre,) but the photo has to depict this house at 1330 E. Washington. The Capitol Theatre building was very different.
Joe, I am not sure how the Indiana Historical Society gets the information they attach to the photos in their collection or how to get them to review it. I hope to find out, because I have found an error in another collection. The volume of photos they are posting, there will be errors.
I noticed a “Contact” link at the bottom of each page of the IHS web site, but my e-mail isn’t working right now and won’t be until I get a new computer set up, so I can’t contact them. Even if I could, I’m not sure they’d fix errors. I contacted the Los Angeles Public Library about several errors in their photo collection several years ago, and the errors are still there.
More institutions should have Flickr accounts like the Library of Congress does. The LOC has gotten a lot of useful information from people posting comments on their photos at Flickr.
January 15th, 1916 grand opening ad in photo section.
Mike, the two ads you uploaded today are actually for a different Strand Theatre, located at Washington and Capitol downtown, and listed at Cinema Treasures as the Capitol Theatre. That house was called the Strand for only about eight months, then reverted to its previous name of Park Theatre.
The duplicate names must have caused confusion in 1916, too, as the ad for the downtown Strand in the March 23 issue of The Indianapolis News included this line: “This theater is not connected with or interested in any other Strand Theatre in Indianapolis.”
The January 15, 1916 grand opening ad with “Mice and Men” on the big screen is in photos. The theatre wired for sound to remain viable. But it closed at the expiry of its second 20-year leasing agreement on May 27, 1956 with “I’ll Cry Tomorrow” and “Vanishing American.” The theater was listed as “Closed for Repairs” although there was no evidence that it would ever be reopened that Fall for films.
Five months later, any hope of a relaunch was over when vandals destroyed the screen, cut the seats and caused a plumbing leak that made repairs too expensive to consider. The building was repurposed for other activities.