Avon Theatre
212 W. Main Street,
Waukesha,
WI
53186
212 W. Main Street,
Waukesha,
WI
53186
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The Avon operated as a special events theater during its last few years, closing its doors in May 1955.
The Auditorium Theatre was owned by George and Gustave Frellson. Mutiple items in construction journals from 1914 say that the $50,000 theater being built at Waukesha for the Frellsons was designed and built by a St. Paul firm that went by the name Monarch Theater Construction & Supply Co.
I’ve found two other theaters erected by the same design/build/outfitting firm, both 1914 projects; one at Willmar, Michigan, and the other at Creston, Iowa.
The Auditorium Theatre can be seen at the lower right of this page of Motion Picture News from March 27, 1920.
The opening of the Auditorium was a bit earlier than planned. The August 27, 1914, issue of the Waukesha Daily Freeman reported that the theater had been formally dedicated and opened on Monday, which would have been August 24. The opening production was the stage play Seven Keys to Baldpate. Another item in the same issue said that the Auditorium was to be equipped with a Wurlitzer organ to accompany silent movies.
This web page about Waukesha’s movie theaters says that “…the Auditorium was remodeled and christened ‘The Avon’ after the installation of Sound….”
The page also says that the Auditorium was opened in 1914. This is confirmed by the August 1, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World: “The new Auditorium theater on East Main street in Waukesha, now in course of construction, is expected to be opened early in September.”