Delight Theatre
Central Avenue and 10th Street,
Fort Dodge,
IA
50501
Central Avenue and 10th Street,
Fort Dodge,
IA
50501
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The Delight Theatre was opened by March 1908. It was a nickelodeon which had 500-seats. It operated with 4 shows a day. It was closed in 1912.
Contributed by
Ken Roe
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Cannot find this one on the 1912 map. It might have been an aka for something, or already closed. If anyone can say what was there before or after, I could probably figure out an address.
The March 21, 1908 issue of Moving Picture World made reference to “[m]anager Spencer, of the Delight Theater, Tenth street and Central Avenue, Fort Dodge, Ia….” The Delight in also mentioned in passing (it’s former operator had leased the Opera House in Carroll to operate as a movie theater) in the January 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon. It is not one of the three theaters listed at Ft. Dodge in the 1912 Polk Iowa Gazetteer. Those were the 500-seat Magic Theatre, the 800-seat Princess Theatre, and the Masonic Hall, no capacity listed. Listings in this directory were not always complete, but if the Delight does not appear on the 1912 Sanborn either it’s probable that it was indeed closed by then.
The 1912 map is from December, so it may well have been open earlier that year. I was in Ft. Dodge in December, and I pity the surveyor who had to spend so long outside.
Does 500 seem overlarge for a nickelodeon? Anyhow, the 1907 map has nothing on any corner of 10th & Central except a large old home on the SE corner, which had become an Ear & Eye Hospital. 1912 has the hospital SE, the Wahkonsa Hotel (1910 - still there) SW, a small one story commercial building with three storefronts NW (still there, heavily remodeled and extended in the rear), and an Airdome on the NE corner. I had listed that one separately. Do you suppose it might have been the same thing?