Theatre
523 N. Main Street,
Carroll,
IA
51401
523 N. Main Street,
Carroll,
IA
51401
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This theater appears on the 1909 Sanborn, in the southern storefront of a two story brick commercial building constructed sometime between 1888 and 1893. The 1898 map shows a grocery here.
This theater was a ground floor operation. The building was extended to the rear by 1915, possibly expanding the auditorium. The theater remained in operation in 1923, but had reverted to retail by 1935.
The building today is in decent shape, although the ground floor has suffered an atrocious remodel. It is used as offices for a CPA.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 1 comments)
A September 19, 2009 comment by kencmcintyre on the Carroll Theatre page quotes a March, 1973 article from the local newspaper that includes the line “[t]he first film house was the Bijou, opened in 1910 and located in the building now housing the G-Store on North Main Street.”
The G-store, whatever it was, appears to no longer exist, and I’ve been unable to find its then-address, but as the 523 N. Main house appears on the 1909 Sanborn there’s a good chance it was the town’s first, and the 1973 article just got the opening year wrong. By 1915 it was apparently no longer called the Bijou, as the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists only three houses at Carroll: the Carroll Opera House, on 5th Street, the Gem Theatre, and the Star Theater, on Main Street.
Oddly, there is no listing of the Royal, which a comment on our State Theatre page says had opened by 1913. Be that as it may, both the Royal and the Star are mentioned in issues of Moving Picture World in February and March, 1916, so they were not the same house. I’ve found no mentions of the Gem other than the AMPD, so by process of elimination it seems most likely that the house at 523 N. Main opened as the Bijou in 1909 and later became the Star.