Aztec Theater

50sSNIPES on November 13, 2024 at 9:34 am

The Aztec Theatre was renamed the Royal Theatre during its final years of operation until the theater’s destruction from the December 9, 1956 fire.

The fire was first witnessed by Howard Moore who was walking on the streets of Van Alstyne exactly an hour after midnight. He rushed to the telephone booth and called the only operator online, Mrs. Janice Overstreet. She sounded the siren from the fire department but was either broken or malfunctioned, so she ended up calling one of the firemen. Alongside Van Alstyne comes neighboring fire departments from Anna, Sherman, and McKinney who raced on-scene to fight the blaze. The fire melted the only telephone cable in the alley as well as the rear of the theater building and damage being reported by some of the T&PL Co. electric lines, causing 3/4th of the town’s phones being disconnected and dead. Only those east of the Southern Pacific railroad line were unaffected. The fire left Van Alstyne without a movie theater for the rest of time, leaving residents to watch movies either in McKinney or Sherman.