Family Theatre
5118 Shaw Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63110
5118 Shaw Avenue,
St. Louis,
MO
63110
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The Family-Lange Theatre was opened prior to 1926.
Contributed by
Norman Plant
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Recent comments (view all 8 comments)
The Lange-Family Theatre was mentioned in the February 21, 1925, issue of The Reel Journal, though with its name misspelled:
Property Shark says the building was built in 1914. That could be about right. The style of the building fits the period. It’s even possible that it was built as a movie theater, though I’ve been unable to find any references to it in the early trade journals.The St. Louis Star in 1927 listed the Family as having 682 seats.
It’s now a meat packing operation, or it was in 2010. I visited for some work with the USDA inspector, and the interior is completely gutted.
In 1912 the Family Theatre 5318 Shaw Ave was purchased one-half interest for $50 by John B. Lueken. Assets consisted of a couple hundred folding chairs, a cannon stove and a projector. Film was rented from Charley and Sam Werner for 50 cents and 75 cents a reel, which ran from 7 to 10 minutes. Show consisted of 3 subjects and admission was 5 cents. The owner sold the building and the new owner wanted to operate the theatre himself. Mr Lueken sold it for $2000 in approximately 1920. —from my family history.
Sometime around 2022, this became a rather garish residence.
This theater is not listed in the 1914-15 AMPD. I can’t figure out which of the many volumes of the St. Louis Sanborns covers the Hill, so I can’t say what was there in 1909. It is still listed in the 1932 Yearbook with 682 seats (which seems huge for such a small building), but does not appear in the 1935 volume.
Volume 10 covers the Hill. For whatever reason, the volumes were generated out of order, and Vol. 10 is from 1903, when there were just a few scattered wooden houses on this block. The 1938 to 1950 reissues of this volume are not available online.
Previous owner, John B Lueken, is my great-grandfather. His daughter played the piano during the silent movie shows. A cousin does have the tambourine that was used for special sound effects.