Empire Theatre
1521 SE Grand Avenue,
Portland,
OR
97214
1521 SE Grand Avenue,
Portland,
OR
97214
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The Empire Theatre was built in 1910. It seated 250 and was closed by 1930. The site is now a vacant plot.
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Chris1982
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
289 NE Grand Avenue is not the correct address for this theater. After the “Great Renumbering” of 1931-32, the modern address would be 1521 SE Grand.
The Empire at old address 289 Grand was one of two houses of that name listed in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory. The second was at 1141 (presumably also an old address) Albina Avenue. The August 8, 1903 issue of The Oregon Daily Journal mentioned the Empire Theatre in Portland, but I don’t know which Empire it was, or if it was a different theater than either of those operating in 1914.
The Pacific Coast Architecture Database has a page for an Empire Theatre built in 1903 with the aka Bungalow Theatre, but no address or photos or other details. The photo of this house on Grand Avenue shows that the building certainly had a bungalowish look to it, but I think this might have been a third Empire Theatre.
In 1909 there was a house called the Bungalow Theatre at 12th and Morrison, which was not near either of the Empire Theaters in the AMPD. A program from the Bungalow says they were presenting the Baker Stock Company, and noted that the house was leased by the Empire Theatre Company Inc. It might have been the house listed as the Baker Theater, 11th and Morrison, in the AMPD, though it might also have been a new home for the Baker Players. Apparently we also list it as the Baker. No house called the Bungalow is listed at Portland in the AMPD.
The Baker Stock Company was a peripatetic troupe who operated in Portland and the northwest from 1901-1923. They had a number of locations, some of which later were converted to cinemas. Among the performers was John Gilbert, Mayo Methot, Edward Everett Horton, and Verna Felton (who was a voice actor for several Disney films). The manager, George Baker was a busy fellow, serving as Mayor of Portland from 1917-1933, as well as the manager at one point of the Marquam Grand Opera House, which has its own entry elsewhere here.
The “bungalow” appearance of this theater also leads me to believe that this is the now vanished Empire Theater that would have been at the modern address 1521 SE Grand.
The other Empire at 1141 Albina would now be located at 5425 North Albina. There is now a vintage apartment building located there that could certainly have been the site of a storefront nickelodeon. I have been trying to find a Sanborn map or contemporaneous image of the area to confirm this. One fun fact– it would place the Empire just around the corner from the storefront Crystal Theatre.
There is a handy converter for Portland, Oregon pre-renumbering addresses located here: https://pastportland.com/ It has been a godsend in tracking down the contemporary locations of many of the existing pre-1930 theaters mentioned in newspaper ads and journals.
The bungalow structure is not the Empire Theatre located at (modern) address 1521 SE Grand, based on a description provided in the Dec. 9, 1916 Moving Picture World magazine. In a roundup of “Portland’s Suburban Photoplay Theaters,” it is described as follows: THE EMPIRE THEATER, PORTLAND, ORE. Patrons Composed of Many Nationalities, But Manager Kollross' Programs Please All
The Empire Theater, located at Grand and Hawthorne Avenues, Portland [which corresponds with the modern address 1521 SE Grand, today a parking lot located south of the Hawthorne Bridge on ramp], is confronted with the difficult task of pleasing many classes of people and several nationalities. Manager W. Kollross has met these difficulties successfully, as is evidenced by the fact that he has conducted the theater several years and is comparatively satisfied. South of the theater is a district inhabited by many Italians, north of it lives a mixed class of people and a few blocks to the west is the bridge that crosses the river to the downtown district where the big theaters cut into the trade of the close-in suburban houses.
“It is a hard proposition to please them all,” says Mr. Kollross. “Italians want Italian war pictures, Germans want German war pictures, and neither kind of war pictures make any special hit with the Americans. If I could get audiences that were all Italian, all German or all American, I would know what to do. I find Italians are good picturegoers.”
The Empire was built in 1910 and opened by M. F. Fenton. After being sold several times it was acquired by W. W. Tebbetts, now manager of the Alhambra [which has its own entry elsewhere here], who built up a good business there. Mr. Tebbetts sold to Mr. Kollross. The building is of concrete and was built for a theater.
(Photo of the Empire from the article has been added.)
As it doesn’t depict this house on Grand Avenue, I’m thinking the photo uploaded by elmorovivo probably shows the Empire/Bungalow at 12th and Morrison. We don’t have a page for that theater. I’m now pretty sure the Baker Theatre at 11th and Morrison, which we do list, was a different house.