Club Theatre

Louviers was a company town for DuPont’s dynamite production. DuPont executives purchased the townsite in 1906, began construction in 1907 of the town and plant and in 1908 the town was named and opened (along with the plant).

The Club Theatre (which also functioned as an assembly hall) was located in the Louviers Village Club (erected and opened in 1917) which served as the social and commercial center for the town. The club building also housed (in addition to the movie theatre) a billiards hall, barbershop, dancehall, 2-lane bowling alley, mercantile, community meeting space and library (among other things). Interestingly, the movie theatre/assembly hall part of the building served as a temporary hospital ward during the worldwide flu epidemic of 1918.

DuPont ended its status as a company town in 1961 and began selling the houses off to individuals. DuPont ceased its dynamite operations in 1971 and in 1975 transferred the title for the club building to Douglas County (which still owns the club but leases it to the Village Club Board).

In 1995 the club building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1998 the entire town was declared a historic district and that same year, a full restoration of the club began.

I am not aware of the year the assembly hall ceased its role as a motion picture theatre-hopefully someone else can share this info. The assembly hall does not have (at least these days) fixed seating and while it (along with everything else in the club building) seems almost entirely original, the few photos I’ve found facing the rear of the hall make me fairly certain that the projection booth no longer exists. I’d be curious to know if this is indeed true and if so, when and why it was removed.

The facility is available for rent and open to the public. A good number of photos and a plethora of information can be found on the internet about this venue and the town it exists in.

The Louviers Club is listed in the 1926 edition of Film Daily Yearbook and is listed in the 1940 Film Daily Yearbook as The Club seating 250.

Get Movie Tickets & Showtimes

Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.