Nickelo Theatre
513 Main Street,
Jasper,
IN
47546
513 Main Street,
Jasper,
IN
47546
No one has favorited this theater yet
The 1909 Sanborn shows an ‘Electric Theatre’ operating in one storefront of a two-story brick commercial block on the courthouse square. This theater was a smaller neighbor to the operation at what is now 511 Main Street.
The building was constructed sometime between 1892 and 1898, when the map shows this space as a bank. As originally constructed, this space was the western end of the building, and was slightly less deep than the rest of the building, but the 1909 map shows a small wooden addition at the rear extending it to match the rest, along with an addition completing the block. The Nickelo Theatre was still operating in 1915 when it had an address given as Public Square.
The 1926 and 1958 maps are unavailable online, but it is doubtful that this was a long-running establishment. The space is now used for retail.
To note, this may have originally been number 23 on the courthouse square, but it’s not entirely certain whether the numbers on the maps are lot numbers or addresses. The west half all the way around now have odd numbers on Main Street.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
A house in Jasper called the Nickelodeon, operated by Sprauer and Schneider, was mentioned in the October 3, 1908 issue of The Moving Picture World.
A Jasper movie house called the Star Theatre is mentioned in trade journals in 1918, 1921, 1923, and 1924. The last mention was an ad offering various items of theater equipment (including 200 seats) for sale, appearing in the October 4, 1924 issue of Exhibitors Herald. It’s likely that the opening of the Tivoli Theatre the previous August doomed the Star. It’s also possible that Star was a new name for the Nicklo, but so far I’ve found nothing to confirm that surmise.
It could have been the one right next door. 200 seats, assuming chairs on the floor, might have been too big for this one.