Home Theatre
203 S. Main Street,
Hutchinson,
KS
67501
203 S. Main Street,
Hutchinson,
KS
67501
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Shaw Theatre
Nearby Theaters
The Home Theatre was mentioned in the Hutchinson News as early as 1902. Here are excerpts from “This was Hutchinson” in the Hutchison News on August 28, 1967:
“Hutchinson’s Home Theatre was the most ornate and modern theatre between Kansas City and Denver for many years. It showed the leading attractions of the American stage, drama, and comedy. The Lyman Howe moving pictures also were shown. Entrance to the theatre was through the arched doorway into a commodious lobby. However, theatre fans who sat in the cheaper plank seats in the top of the auditorium entered by a side door, never contacting the better paying customers. The theatre met its doom in the 1929 flood when the stage and its high domed sets storage collapsed. The day of the traveling troupes was coming to an end anyway.”
The Home Theatre was closed by 1926. It was reported in the news on December 14, 1928 that contractor C.L. Burt had purchased the old Home Theatre building. At that time it was reported that the theater used to be called the Shaw Theatre. Mr. Burt apparently was Hutchinson’s busiest contractor as the Hutchinson News is filled with his projects. The C.L Burt building, at the location today, has been there since 1929.
Contributed by
rpierce
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
The newspaper history is definitely wrong. The 1929 flood was in July, and the building had been gone for some time by then. The Sanborn map for 1929 is also from July, and shows the Burt building.
This likely closed some years before 1926. The 1922 Sanborn notes the theater as ‘not used’, although the small storefronts either side of the entrance are occupied. The theater is operating on the 1915 Sanborn, but is not listed in the AMPD for 1914-15.
A history of Reno County published in 1917 has a biographical sketch of a William A. Loe who was at the time of publication the manager of the Home Theatre. It says that in 1892 he leased the Hutchinson Opera House, and operated it until “…1904, in which year he became manager of the new Home theater, at the corner of B avenue and Main street and has ever since been in charge of the same.”
The year given for Mr. Loe’s acquisition of the house must have been wrong, as the 1902-1903 Cahn guide already lists him as manager of the 900-seat Shaw Theatre. The 1903-1904 Cahn guide lists the house as the Home Theatre. Mr. Loe was still manager of the Home in 1921, when the Cahn-Hill guide listing for the house carried the notation “Plays legitimate attractions only.”