Rialto Theatre
479 Main Street,
Dubuque,
IA
52001
479 Main Street,
Dubuque,
IA
52001
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Star Theatre
Nearby Theaters
Located up the block from the Spensley Theatre, the Star Theatre opened August 29, 1908. Proprietors Schawb and McComb, Chicago, advertised the theatre as a “positive revelation in moving pictures”. Sanborn Maps 1909 lists it as moving pictures. The Star Theatre was closed in 1915.
An advertisement in the Telegraph Herald on March 10, 1929, noted its reopening as the Rialto Theatre playing Tom Mix in “Rough Riding Romance”.
Beginning August 18, 1929, a series of advertisements in the Telegraph Herald offered the 240-seat theatre for sale. By 1931 an upholstery shop was listed in the building.
On June 14, 1970, it was reported urban renewal resumed Friday. Working crews dismantled the former Feller Van Horne Upholstery shop at 479 Main Street.
Contributed by
Ron Pierce
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Added a Sanborn view. Theater building can be seen at the far right of the lead picture here: https://www.encyclopediadubuque.org/index.php/URBAN_RENEWAL
Site is now beneath the depressingly awful arena which ate the entire block, save the Majestic.
It seems that the Star closed in 1915, when the owner went into the tire sales business. No mention of the Rialto until 1929. It’s unclear what happened in the interim. The building was quite old, going back at least to the mid-1870s. It seems to have been a saloon before the Star opened.