State Theatre
120 N. Main Street,
Hartford,
SD
57033
120 N. Main Street,
Hartford,
SD
57033
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The American Legion Post 118 was founded in 1947. I can find no listing for the State Theatre prior to 1947. The only other theatre listed for Hartford was the Palace Theatre. The State Theatre was listed at the 120 N. Main Street. It could have been that the theatre was on one floor and the American Legion on another. Both are listed at the same address though. The Palace theatre was listed at 119 N. Main St. which is the senior citizen center across the street from the American Legion Hall.
The Legion post building has a plaque with the year 1915 above the entrance, so the building is quite old. It looks as though it might have been built as a lodge hall, though if built in 1915 it wouldn’t have been for the American Legion, which wasn’t founded until 1919. I don’t know how long Hartford’s Legion post has been in this building, but if it was there in 1948 then the State Theatre might have another aka. An item in the October 16, 1948, issue of Showmen’s Trade Review says that “[t]he Legion, Hartford, S. D., is closed for remodeling.”
The address for the State should be 120, my mistake.
There was a State Theatre in operation in Hartford by 1945. This item appeared in the January 2, 1946, issue of Film Daily:
Have we got the addresses of the State and Hartford Theatres reversed, or is it the names and histories? Internet says that the Hartford American Legion post is at 120 N. Main Avenue. Google Street View shows the address 119 next to the door of the Senior Citizens Center across the street.