Tampico Theatre

Charles Burden of the local produce and grocery store, Burden’s Cash Store, opened Burden’s Opera House in 1898 at 102 Main Street on the building’s second floor. Movies were shown as early as December of 1904 by traveling moving picture show operators. In May of 1912, he installed projectors showing movies twice a week. He and wife Catherine Conroy moved to Portland selling the venue to new operators. By 1923, the Opera House was operating as a full-time movie house closing in January of 1928 likely at the end of a 30-year lease.

The venue reopened in a ground floor, converted retail structure now known as the Tampico Theatre in 1928 at 121 South Main Street. It closed in June of 1930 apparently not equipped for sound. After being used for live events, it eventually made a transition to sound films and definitely sound on film technology in 1934. It closed after a February 27, 1938 fire damaged the building. It was redecorated for its reboot over three months later by then-owner J.A. Dauntler. A film explosion in February of 1946 again closed the venue. The townspeople created the Tampico Theatre Corporation to salvage and repair the theatre. It relaunched on August 2, 1946 after a refresh.

The Tampico received an upgrade by Asael Tonkinson in 1950. The Tampico Theatre Corporation’s stewardship of the venue ended on October 11, 1958 after a showing of “Restless Breed” in a dissolution followed by an auction of its Simplex projectors, a Manley 47 popper, 240 seats, and more in early 1959. In 1962, the venue was converted by Robert E. Schmitt to the Schmitt Furniture & Appliance Store. This building burned down in a September 30, 1979 fire. The original Burden Opera House carried on as a produce retail location but was later demolished.