Grand Theatre
217 N. Main Street,
Kokomo,
IN
46901
217 N. Main Street,
Kokomo,
IN
46901
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The November, 1922 issue of the trade union journal American Federationist listed the Grand as one of three Kokomo houses at which projectionists and musicians were on strike. The others were the Isis and the Colonial. Managers had signed agreements with union members at the Victory, Pictureland, Star, and Strand.
The building at 217 is the same one, but I would guess it was remodeled in the ‘20s, maybe for a bank. The 1916 Sanborn shows an oriel on the building, which is clearly not there now. There was a building on this lot sometime before 1885, but between 1909 and 1916 it was either replaced or extended in the rear.
I’m going to guess at a replacement, because the building at 219 once shared a facade, although it is now missing an oriel as well. So as a theater, it would have been roughly a mirror of 219, with an oriel and a large square awning over the entry. The first 10 or so feet of the wall separating the two buildings was actually a few feet further north than the rest. There are 1927, 1934, and 1965 maps, but they are not digitized.
I’m not sure the building that currently sports the address 217 N. Main is the one the Grand Theatre was in. There’s nothing theater-like about the narrow front, so it might be a new structure built after the theater closed, or it might just have been remodeled beyond recognition. In either case, the Grand probably had a fairly brief life.