Midland Theatre

50sSNIPES on October 19, 2023 at 8:29 pm

The fire of February 1, 1909 started practically underneath the auditorium of the theater located in a sort of sub-basement separating the dressing rooms of the theater and the rooms that was occupied as a workshop by W.W. Payne’s plumbing establishment. The alarm sounded right at the time smoke was spotted. Manager H.V. Rule and his wife were at the ticket office of the theater when the alarm was given. There was people that night and all of them made it out safely, but some difficulty encounter in getting Guy Seaver out of the dressing rooms by the other members of the party. Seaver was confused and was being separated from the others twice. Fred Loeber, who had characteristic fearlessness also made a sprint for the apartments on the third floor of the building to give warning to occupants of the flats. The Fort Dodge Fire Department then responds out of the Central Station in full house. Although it was a prompt response but it was owing to the wintery severe weather that occurred in the latter part of the week when Winter Storm Warnings slam the area.

The entire basement was completely destroyed before the first tongue of flame was being observed, consuming nearly an hour of time but with the falling floor of the auditorium room onto the basement is when the flames shot to the roof like a rocket. Three lines of hose played constantly on the blaze. Water was also thrown outside the theater for dangerous situations.

Right after the fire was completely extinguished, stage manager Floyd Adkins immediately checked the heating plant of the building and replied that it had occasion to visit the basement of the theater to look after the fire for the night. The Midland Theatre, the Ware & Leland Commission Company, and the W.W. Payne Plumbing Establishment were the ones impacted by the flames, but the Midland received the most out of it all, estimating a $50,000 in loss from the complete and devastating fire destruction of the 70x140ft building that was erected on July 26, 1899. The Majestic Theatre itself, which opened on January 4, 1900, was located on the main first floor fronted by two store rooms facing the south of the theater, one measuring 31x25 and the other 31x20. Between the two store rooms is a 12x16ft vestibule, and at the north side of the theater is the lobby).

Afterward, Brothers Floyd and Earl Loeber and Guy Seaver fitted up the basement (that used to be 25ft of space being devoted to the orchestra pit) for some help before eventually returning back to their apartments with a little trouble walking through the heavy snow. Loeber replied that it expressed the belief that he detected the smell of smoke and later opened the door leading to the sub-basement was driven back by a cloud of smoke which came pouring into the dressing rooms.

Joe Vogel on December 14, 2011 at 6:03 pm

The Midland Theatre was listed in several issue of Julius Cahn’s Theatrical Guide in the early 1900s. It was a ground-floor house of 983 seats.

In 1909, the Midland was included on a list of theater fires that had occurred so far that year, published in the August 18 issue of The Insurance Press The Midland Theatre fire had taken place on February 1, and had resulted in a loss estimated at $50,000.

There are postcards dated “circa 1910” on various Internet sites that show the Midland Theatre, but I’ve been unable to discover whether or not the house was actually rebuilt following the 1909 fire.