Garden Theatre

dallasmovietheaters on July 26, 2026 at 7:28 am

Chris Taylor opened the New Dreamland / Dreamland (“#2”) elsewhere in 1912, as well as Dreamland #1 in 1907 in the Hotel Main. Here, in the Gould Building, Taylor and business associate Mr. Beard, had their names fused together - as explained by naming contest winner Wilnia Bowman - to create the 312-seat Tabard Theatre launching March 24, 1912. Ernest Lindbeck was the first person to actually purchase a ticket that day as Bowman’s money was a guest of the theater’s. The projection booth was built in steel and concrete to protect against a spreading fire.

Even though its pronunciation was also explained, nobody knew how to properly pronounce it. So Taylor went for the hat trick on January 29, 1914 renaming here as the Dreamland (“#3”) with “The Adventures of Kathlyn.” The theatre lists regular shows until October 13, 1918’s showing of Marion Davies first starring role in “Runaway Roman.” It then played sporadic shows likely to complete booking engagements in December.

John Rood took on the venue in January of 1919 hanging vines and using lots of artificial flowers in the renaming of the building as the Garden Theatre. It was advertised as “The Small House with the Big Show.” Rood sold out to Harold Eckenfelder of Peru, Illinois - a road show film operator who had two Simplex projectors he took to small towns and villages in the area. The Garden operated until May of 1921 when it closed permanently. The former Tabard / Dreamland / Garden was torn out for a barber shop and a retail store in 1921 and 1922.

SethG on August 23, 2021 at 2:15 pm

This theater may appear in a photo on the Illinois HARGIS site, for listing number 118663. The site is pretty hard to use, but some clicking will get you to a photo, likely from the early ‘70s, before this corner became so depressingly ugly. The building on the far right is either the theater, or it’s the ice cream parlor, and the theater is just out of frame. At any rate, this building was lost much later, during Kewanee’s sharp decline postwar.