Lyric Theatre
517 W. Main Street,
Sac City,
IA
50583
517 W. Main Street,
Sac City,
IA
50583
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This theatre appears on the May 1909 Sanborn, in the western third of a one story brick commercial building, which was constructed sometime after 1899.
The only noteworthy feature of this simple structure was that it was built on a hill, so the eastern side is two stories. This early attempt to capitalize on the movie craze was not a success, and had closed by 1911 when a new Lyric Theatre opened (It has its own page on Cinema Treasures). By 1915 the space held a store selling books & stationery.
The building is in decent shape today. The western two thirds of the building have been unified into one storefront, occupied by an antique store.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
An item in the April 3, 1909 issue of Moving Picture World might have been about this house, but unfortunately gives no name for it. “Sac City, Ia.-Harry Arney has purchased a moving picture theater here, and has taken possession.” The only other mention of Harry Arney I’ve found is from 1900 and notes that his business was then real estate and insurance.
I’m pretty sure this was the Lyric Theatre, the first of two with that name in Sac City.
An item in the January 22, 1910 issue of The Film Index mentioned that A. Engle Had purchased the interests of H. L. Arney in the Lyric Theatre in Sac City and was now its manager.
This theatre would have closed in the Fall of 1911, when Engle and his wife opened their new house, also called the Lyric. This was reported in the November, 1911 issue of Motography as “recently opened” and mentioned it was operated by Mr. and Mrs. Engle. This new venue was most likely located up the street, at 601 W. Main Street.