Iowa Theatre
121 N. 1st Street,
Winterset,
IA
50273
121 N. 1st Street,
Winterset,
IA
50273
3 people
favorited this theater
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Boxoffice, June 3, 1963: “The Iowa Theatre at Winterset has closed after 52 years. Mr. and Mrs. Eben Hays, who have operated the theatre since 1951, said receipts have declined to a point where they felt unable to continue the operation.”
The history is wrong. This did not open in 1900, and was not originally called the Iowa. The building may have existed before 1886, but definitely by 1899, when a deeper structure appears on the Sanborn map. It was originally a one story brick storefront. The 1907 map shows this as ‘meat & grocery’.
Its use as a theater came much later, when R.E. Goshorn and Cail Creger remodeled the building in August of 1914, using seats and equipment from the short-lived Court theater (possibly on Court St?). The Majestic opened on September 24, 1914. It was known as the Iowa by 1919, when an extensive remodel was performed under the ownership of A.B. Pettit. A Star Theatre was apparently operated during this closure.
Pettit still owned the theater when it was enlarged in the summer of 1928. The addition of a balcony supposedly added about 200 to the capacity (and necessitated adding a second story). Curiously, the capacity is listed as 340 in 1926, and in 1931. It may have been that an already existing balcony was moved higher up or more steeply raked to improve sightlines. The facade was replaced with the current brick (the old theater seems to have had a stucco front). Movies were shown at the Chataqua pavilion while the work was performed.
This information comes from the Sanborn maps and the NRHP listing for downtown. Curiously, that listing also notes that the local paper said that Pettit had owned the Iowa for 16 years as of 1928, which cannot be correct.
How a mother and her daughter saved an Iowa movie theater (Courtney Crowder, Des Moines Register) Marianne and Rebecca Fons are freaking out over a handrail. They are frantic clapping, jumping up and down, shrill squeal-level excited over this railing, which is a sturdy wood banister, sure, but not a furnishing that should elicit this much happy hysteria. But to this mother-daughter duo, that handrail is so more than a stairwell safety requirement. It’s a sign. A harbinger that construction inside the historic Iowa Theater is on track. Proof that they are, indeed, in the final stages of renovating the beloved movie house that has graced Winterset’s town square since the early 1900s before falling into disrepair and closing in 2015. And, most importantly, an auspice that maybe their audacious idea for Rebecca to quit her steady job in Chicago and commute from the Windy City to Winterset for two years as the pair whipped up community support and raised funds to the tune of $800,000 to renovate the now-multi-use entertainment space wasn’t such a foolhardy endeavor.
Like the renovated movie theaters in nearby Newton and Knoxville, The Iowa Theater reopening in Winterset is a direct result of neighbors taking up the mantle of change and locals, like the Fonses, investing time and money in their community. As the drum beat of decline in population and amenities in rural Iowa continues steadily, Winterset is playing a different tune. The town has grown by about 10 percent since the turn of the century, according to U.S Census data, and has averaged about 16 new dwellings built per year for the past 13 years, according to the Madison County Development Group. While all growth is mostly good growth to small communities, a focus for Winterset and many similar locales is the retention of young professionals, who want to play in their town as much as they want to live and work. Having places for residents to dine out and options for entertainment are simply necessities if you want to ensure a prosperous future, said Tom Leners, executive director of the Madison County Development Group. And having even one successful amenity, like a movie theater on the square, can be a big driver of foot traffic and dollars to an otherwise quiet town, he said. In Knoxville, four new or remodeled restaurants have opened since their community-financed movie theater began operations in late 2015.
How, exactly, The Iowa will influence its environs has yet to be seen, but after two years of a dark theater, many residents are just excited to have movies in Winterset again. Pride drips from the Fonses as they explain how they’ve partnered with their community to restore the one-screen cinema and live performance space in the style of its glory days, but with the digital technology of modern theaters. A couple weeks ago, the Fonses were in the home stretch, but recently the theater opened and entertained sold-out crowds for showings of classic films starring local hero John Wayne. The story of how this unlikely mother-daughter team got those full houses, the story of the last two years of the Fonses life, well, that plays out a little bit like one of The Duke’s movies. Here, in excerpts from their recollections, the people closest to the project tell the Register how — and why — they decided to turn the lights back on at The Iowa Theater.
The main characters
REBECCA FONS, development director of The Iowa Theater: So in May of 2015… MARIANNE FONS, chair of The Iowa Theater board: I heard wind that the movie theater was for sale.
REBECCA: We were at my wedding on Memorial Day weekend in Wisconsin and somebody told us. I think you took a phone call and you told me, “Rebecca the movie theater has closed. I don’t know about you, but it could be neat and I would not do it without you, you know.” And I was like, “Let me get married and go on a honeymoon and do that and then we will talk.” That was in May and I think in July or in late June I came to Winterset and we met with our contractor. MARY FONS, sister and middle daughter: When my mom wants something she gets this twinkle, like this gleam in her eye. I remember her kind of thinking about looking at how much it cost and what she could do. My mom is not a women who’s flashy. She doesn’t buy jewelry and handbags, but real estate projects are her thing. She’s interested in renovation. REBECCA: By September of that year, as a newlywed, we had acquired the theater and since then have been working to make it a nonprofit and rehab it.
The memories
BRENDA HOLLINGSWORTH, manager with the Madison County Historic Preservation Commission: Winterset always had a theater, really. The opera house was one of the first buildings built in town. And culture and arts have always played an important role in our community. JANE MARTENS, former Iowa Theater employee: I worked at the theater in 1946, 1947 and 1948. I graduated in 1948, so it was a high school job for me and it was a fantastic job. I called myself, “The Big Boss.” STEVE REED, contractor for Iowa Theater renovation: I am from Winterset, so (I) used to go to the theater all the time. It was a great place to be a kid. MARTENS: Sometimes kids would be throwing stuff down in front of the screens and we would call their parents and tell them we put their kid out of the theater and they weren’t allowed back in the theater for three weeks. We did! MARTENS: Then, there were people who couldn’t afford to come to the show. We had a little fund because I knew some of the kids’ parents couldn’t afford to hardly eat, so I would take from that little fund and, it was 35 cents at that time, so I would give them a ticket and let them see a show. REBECCA: I would not want to have been a kid here without a movie theater because it showed me the world. And maybe it was the world through crummy movies. I wasn’t seeing foreign films or anything from film festivals or anything fancy, but it showed me the world and it showed me stories and it expanded my mind. MARTENS: And I have hilarious stories that stick with me, too. Our projectionist had gone on to college, but he came back and one day he said to me, “Can I have a roll of pennies?” I gave it to him and all of a sudden when the movie started, the door flung wide open and a man came to my window and I said, “Yes, sir, is there is something wrong? Do you need help?” And he said, “It’s raining pennies from heaven!” The projectionist had been throwing pennies out of the window of the projector room.
The theater
HOLLINGSWORTH: The Iowa Theater was originally a one-story building that was a meat market in 1899 and then later a bakery and restaurant. In the early 1900s, the building was purchased for a new playhouse for vaudeville productions. And then around 1928, they remodeled the whole structure and built the second story and upgraded it to put in silent movies. MARY: The Iowa Theater is where I saw my first film in the 80s. It was “Fox and the Hound,” the Disney cartoon, with my dad. I remember sitting in the balcony and the place had fallen into disrepair. It just looked terrible. MARIANNE: It was threadbare. REED: It was where dreams went to die, really. LENERS: It turns out the building itself was transitioning from one generation to another in 2015, so the ladies that were taking the property over came out to see it and they decided the building needed some TLC that they weren’t able to give it. REBECCA: The Theater finally closed in 2015. It was operational up until that point, but not super consistently. HOLLINGSWORTH: It was a very, very sad moment for the town when the theater closed, but it was a necessary moment because the building wasn’t up to code and it wasn’t a safe place. The comeback REED: There’s a movement in Winterset right now to go through and restore these old buildings in town. There’s a lot of character to them and their structure is good, but if we don’t keep them up, they will fall apart. HOLLINGSWORTH: The Theater is in the courthouse historic district, which is on the historic register. The entire square is a great example of Italianate architecture at the turn of the century in Iowa. It’s like stepping back in time. REBECCA: We did a historical audit of the building and we found that a lot of the insides of the theater had been irreparably changed in the 1980s, so we didn’t have a huge requirement to keep a lot of the inside, but the outside of the theater, the marquee specifically, and the front ticket lobby, were the original 1930-ish marquee and terrazzo floor ticket lobby and ticket booth, so we were like, well, we’re keeping that. REED: My opinion is, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Marianne’s goal was to keep what we could and make the rest look original. If they wanted to build a brand new modern movie theater they could do that on the edge of town, but her dream and the community’s dream was to restore The Iowa as a major part of the town square. HOLLINGSWORTH: The downtown historic square, of which the theater is a part, is a picture of who we are in Winterset. It’s our legacy and our roots. Somebody once said to me that a city without old buildings is like an old man without a memory. Those buildings create context for our life today. REED: From the first moment I stepped into the theater, I could see the finished product. I knew what it could become. The personal growth REBECCA: My relationship with my mom was always good, but it’s definitely stronger now. I left my job at the Chicago International Film Festival after 10 years, but I would never have done it if she wasn’t one of my best friends. MARIANNE: I was raised by altruistic parents and was raised with the idea that if you can make the world a better place, you should. So because I had the ability to jump in and get the project started for the theater I decided to do it. Because of Rebecca, because I knew she had the expertise, the industry knowledge and the youth and the energy to really be the brains of the project. REBECCA: For me a large desire to do this came from a love for movies and the power of cinema and what it can do for anybody, especially a kid growing up in Winterset, Iowa. REBECCA: I feel like, living in Chicago, so often we put on our sunglasses and go to the grocery store and it’s like, ugh, I don’t want to see anybody, just let me do this and let me get home and rush, rush, rush. And then I come here and it is like kind of like, oh, there is someone at the coffee shop let’s just talk, and I love that, and I think it is in my blood, and I think I had kind of forgotten that part of myself, because I was so like, “I left Iowa and I never looked back.” But then I looked back and I was like, “Oh, Iowa is awesome.”
The end credits
HOLLINGSWORTH: When I first walked into the theater, I sat down in one of the seats and wept happy tears. I just had a moment. If you saw it originally, a lot of it just had to be gutted and how they went from that humble beginning to the finished product is pretty amazing. LENERS: I was observing Friday the crowds in downtown Winterset and, you know, it just feels good that the square is parked full again and I heard from the restaurants that they had big nights on the weekend the theater opened. MARY: I’m so proud to be from a small town that is thriving and I don’t take it for granted that people like my mom and my younger sister are investing in the town. I live in Chicago and when you go to places like Berwyn (Illinois) you realize these places thrive because people decide to stay and to invest and make a lecture series or a music festival or brewery or a winery. It doesn’t happen because you hope it happens. It happens because people invest. LENERS: Who knows what is available to us now? Maybe a show going to the Stoner Theater can land here before they do their weeklong run in Des Moines. One of my wife’s nephews is a musician and there are more and more of these small town playhouses to have gigs at. At some point, we think politicians might want to rent the place. LENERS: There is this feeling that if the theater can succeed then maybe an evening coffee and dessert spot is possible and more restaurants are possible. We have people wanting to be downtown, so I am just wildly optimistic. MARIANNE: I bought a seat during our Sponsor a Seat Campaign, of course, and when I was laying the theater out, I chose the seat way in the back corner. It would be the last seat that a person would pick, so I just imagine myself sitting in it in the way back looking out over a full house, watching everyone watch a movie from my very own seat in this theater.
According to the website, functions should be, in addition to classic movies, first run movies and live performances.
The Iowa is now state-of-the-art with a new retractable screen, sound system, and digital projection system. A new, enlarged concession area with beer, wine and hard cider available. New seating accommodates 148 (81main floor and 67 in balcony). The main floor is handicap accessible.
Website: https://www.the-iowa.com/
The Iowa Theater in Winterset is once again open! Local resident Marianne Fons and her daughter Rebecca spent two years rehabilitating, restoring and preserving the theater. The Iowa Theater is a 501 © 3 non-profit, multi-use performance center for the community. The Winterset Stage will also produce live performances on the Iowa Theater stage.
The first movie shown in the restored theater was John Wayne’s classic “Stagecoach” (1939) on May 25, 2017 and the official Grand Reopening celebration took place on May 28, 2017 with showings of “Field of Dreams” (1988, shot in Iowa) and “The Bridges of Madison County” (1995, filmed right in Madison County).
The Iowa Theatre is being purchased by a local person who has the wherewithal AND the intention to “restore, renovate, and update the facility” and to transform it “into a multi-use space that can not only screen movies digitally and in 35mm, but also become a location where educational, musical, and other programs can be offered.” Great news for this gem!
For sale now. Copy & paste to view.
http://www.oldhousedreams.com/2015/07/22/1915-movie-theater-winterset-ia/
The Iowa Theatre is now closed (June 2, 2015). It was closed by the owners on Wednesday, May 27, 2015. The Theatre is now for sale.
The Iowa Theatre struggled in a community of 5,000 and found it difficult to compete with numerous multiplex theatre operations located about a half hour away in Des Moines, even though their ticket and concession prices were generally half as much as in Des Moines.
A committee was formed in May of 2013 to help raise awareness and build sufficient business to justify converting to a digital projection system at a cost of $41,000, as the studios would stop distributing movies on 35mm film at the end of that year. Despite substantial efforts, business remained spotty and the Theatre was unable to convert.
They continued on by showing recently-released DVDs once a week at 7pm on Saturday until the owners (out-of-state relatives of the theatre operator) closed the theatre and put it up for sale.
Hopefully new owners will be found who can invest in restoring this wonderful theatre and return it once again to showing first-run films.
The website http://www.iowatheatrewinterset.com is presently inactive, but may return if the theatre reopens.
Here are some recent photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/9312134244 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/9309375091 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/9309356427 https://www.flickr.com/photos/cakeight/9309346037
The first listing I found on the Iowa Theatre was in 1931. Prior to that movies were shown in the High School Auditorium.
It would be a real shame if the town of Winterset could not support its own Iowa Theatre. After all it is the county seat for Madison County of Bridges of Madison County fame; plus the birthplace of John Wayne is just a few blocks away. Although the theater usually presents only one film a week, it does host continuous showings of The Duke’s films during the annual John Wayne Birthday Celebration which takes place in May.
PLEASE SAVE THE IOWA THEATER IN WINTERSET, IOWA! Find them on Facebook at Save the Iowa Theater. They have to go digital or close the doors…please donate to save this wonderful theater.
Here is a 2007 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/y992bn4
Here is another recent photo:
http://tinyurl.com/88xnoy
I first visited this theatre in 1999 while on a visit to Winterset to see the Madison County covered bridges and the John Wayne Museum and birthplace. It is located on the east side of the town square. At the time they were playing two separate shows, a family movie at 7PM and an adult (as in Adam Sandler type adult, not XXX) feature at 9PM. Winterset is only 35 miles from Des Moines so the turnover in features here is pretty quick in order to keep the local customers from traveling to Des Moines if what they want to see is not currently playing at the local theatre.
The manager / owner was working the box office, but he was nice enough to let me in to look the place over and talk about the difficulties in running a one screen small town theatre in close proximity to a large city. Print availability on national release date and preview availability were two issues he mentioned. These seem to be problems common to most theatres is this type of setting.
The theatre itself is old and occupies a narrow storefront on the square. Like most cold weather businesses it has a double lobby. Once you enter the street doors you come to the box office. From there you go through another set of doors into the main lobby, which in this case is taken up mostly by the snack bar. The interior of the auditorium is 1950’s art deco style with two off center aisles. The outside frontage had been covered with wood siding, but the owner said that removing it and restoring the exterior to its original state was his next priority. From the look of the two pictures posted on this site it seems that he has not gotten around to it yet.
In 2005 I noticed on another theatre website that this location was listed as closed. I called the Chamber of Commerce and the lady there said that it was open and had not closed at any time during the past 6 years.