Bijou Theater
119-121 S. Federal Avenue,
Mason City,
IA
50401
119-121 S. Federal Avenue,
Mason City,
IA
50401
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The Bijou Theater opened in 1906, the first dedicated movie theater opened in Mason City. It was owned and operated by John McKee Heffner. The theater closed around 1932.
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elmorovivo
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Status should be closed/demolished. The address is for a parking lot.
A Bijou Theatre is listed at Mason City in the 1926 FDY, with 400 seats. If it was the same Bijou, it must have taken over the entire ground floor of its building. It is last listed, with no seating capacity given, as a silent house, in the 1932 FDY.
Still need to correct the status to demolished. A giant ugly mall and parking lot destroyed the entire south side of downtown.
Building was the Zoller Block, built between 1892 and 1897. The ground floor was originally split in half, and the theater took over the northern half from a dry goods store. By 1915, the theater occupied the entire ground floor with two small storefronts at the corners. I’ve uploaded a view from the 1918 Sanborn to show the plan. The original address was 219, but between 1915 and 1918 it was changed to 119.