World Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on October 11, 2020 at 7:37 am

This building was built in 1876 to house a hotel. The Mystic Theatre launched upstairs there on October 7, 1907. Richard Seibert took on the operation in 1915 renaming the theatre as the World Theatre and retaining the hotel. The World opened on June 10, 1915, showing four reels of silent movies. The city-run Municipal Theatre had opened earlier in the year with live shows but the city switched to booking many more films beginning in 1916. The town expanded to three theatres when the Opie Theatre opened in 1918 though closing in 1923 as the Palace Theatre.

In early 1929, the Municipal was under private owners who installed Moviephone equipment by A.P. Desormeaux and going full-time motion pictures. He would take on took on the World Theatre from Seibert which he wired for sound as well. Desormeaux would remodel the Municipal in 1932 selling the World Theatre to Waldemar Amusements Co. Waldmear closed the World during the Depression with the Municipal-turned-Point Theatre becoming the town’s cinema destination.

The Italianate architecture of the building was still on display when the building was added to the National Register on July 30, 1971. It was refurbished in 1989 becoming a tavern and restaurant.