Electric Theatre
627 Lafayette Street,
Waterloo,
IA
50703
627 Lafayette Street,
Waterloo,
IA
50703
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Additional Info
Previous Names: Turner Hall
Nearby Theaters
Waterloo’s Turner Hall, a social/athletic club for the German community, was constructed sometime before 1885. It was a simple wooden structure, rather like a church in plan.
Still active in 1900, by 1906 it had become the Electric Theatre, operated by Johnson & Nichols with 3 shows a day. It was here that the first movies in Waterloo were shown. This was a short-lived operation, and the 1910 map shows this corner occupied by a set of small brick storefronts, which themselves were demolished sometime after 1962.
This section of the block is a wasteland of surface parking.
Note: Not to be confused with the 200-seat Electric Theatre, located at 116 6th Street which was operating by March 1908.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Note that odds and evens switched sides sometime after the theater was demolished.
That other Electric must have been at 116 W 6th, since the entire even side of the 100 block of E 6th was the C.G.W. Railroad freight depot. I didn’t look at the part of town across the river yet.