Lyric Theatre
113 W. J Street,
Forest City,
IA
50436
113 W. J Street,
Forest City,
IA
50436
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So this is the Lyric I see. The Lyric operated from 1911 until 1917.
It was once closed for a short time during 1914 due to the opening of the New Opera House, which both the Lyric and the New Opera House were operated by P.E. Wilcox, but reopened right when 1915 kicked in. On the same day the New Opera House opened in September 1914, the building itself was not even finished yet at the time of its first attraction.
The only candidate I see is 133-141 N Clark, where three wooden storefronts were replaced by the brick storefronts that are still there. The central storefront, which is labeled ‘Shoes & Dry Goods’ on the 1907 map, was the largest and deepest of those, and could have held a small early theater. If anyone can confirm, we can list it.
Wherever the Scenic/Gem was, it fell in the gap between the 1907 map and the 1913 map, which is from November. I might be able to locate it by seeing what’s missing between those two.
This can’t be the Gem, since it was still open in 1916, and hasn’t been torn down. The opera house was a wooden thing that was right about where the chiropractor is now. It was gone sometime after 1913, but before 1916.
I’m pretty sure that this could be the Gem Theatre (formerly Scenic Theatre).
The Scenic Theatre opened its doors during the week of December 10, 1908 and was renamed Gem Theatre in September 1909. The theater closed in early-1913 and was razed during the first week of May of that same year to make way for the Thompson & Clauson company.
There is also an older opera house simply called “Opera House” that closed down before the opening of the New Opera House (later Forest Theatre) in September 1914, although I cannot find any info rather than its plans dating back to November 1905.
Despite the sun shining right on the front, I was too dumb to get a picture of this during my 2009 visit.