Chateau Theatre
9 N. Indiana Street,
Greencastle,
IN
46135
9 N. Indiana Street,
Greencastle,
IN
46135
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This building dates to sometime before 1887. The 1913 map shows a hardware store in this space. The nifty modernist theater entry has been replaced by an ugly collection of smoked plexiglass windows with a steel door. Looks like it might be an office. The one positive is that the horribly clumsy bricking in of the windows on the second floor has been undone.
The first listing for the Castle Square Theatre was in 1935. Seating was listed at 285.
Prior to April, 1935, this house was called the Castle Square Theatre. The name change to Chateau Theatre was noted in the April 8 issue of The Film Daily.
The Chateau had a single center aisle with five seats on each side. The floor sloped down for the first two thirds of the way toward the screen and then went up again so the seats tilted back so people close to the front did not have to tip their heads back to see the screen.
DePauw University students were a big part of the customer base. You could count on shows starting as 7 and 9 except for some big blockbusters like the Ten Commandments.
The owner was a man who had formerly worked in the motion picture distribution business and had connections that let him get the movies he wanted. He and his wife could run the whole thing by themselves although he did sometimes hire a projectionist.
He sold great popcorn and one time told me he took in over $90,000 in popcorn sales at 10 and 25 cents a box and I think he said that was for one quarter of the year in 1960!