Ritz Theatre
122 SE 4th Street,
Topeka,
KS
66603
122 SE 4th Street,
Topeka,
KS
66603
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A strange thing in this picture, my friend Stephen has one of his fathers pictures of a Meadow Gold Ice Cream truck in font of the Granada Theatre in St. Louis. Meadow Gold must have been a Midwest Dairy.
I’ve found quite a few references to the Apex Theatre, dating as far back as its opening on December 27, 1912, but the sources all give the address as 302 Kansas Avenue. It must have had two different locations, but the second one, on Fourth Street, must have opened sometime between 1928 and 1933, when the photo currently displayed above was taken.
This entry from the 1928 Topeka Colored Directory tells of Mr B. F. Payne, operator of the Apex:
The original Apex was also mentioned in an article about Topeka in the June 27, 1914, issue of The African-American newspaper The Freeman, which said: “The Apex Theatre, on the main street, in the very heart of the business district, is a pretty and finely appointed Negro enterprise which Mrs. Wright manages.”Apex Theater on Flickr.