Air Dome

307 W. Main Street,
Anamosa, IA 52205

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Air Dome

This simple theater appears on the 1917 Sanborn, in a location that was a vacant lot in 1905.

This seems to have been exceedingly basic, and no fence or other structures are shown. A small storage structure at the back of the lot may have been a screen, or unrelated to the business.

This theater was probably only open seasonally for a short time, and the location today is the parking lot for a small office building.

Contributed by Seth Gaines

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on February 4, 2025 at 1:08 am

Here is an excerpt from the reminiscences of early Anamosa resident Warren J. Rees, published in 1988, describing Main Street in 1915: “On the southwest comer of the intersection of Main and Garnavillo was Bert Cotton’s fixit shop. He reupholstered furniture, framed pictures, and did all sorts of small repair Jobs. Next door on the west was a dwelling occupied by the Scroggs family. Proceeding west we found the office of the Anamosa Gas Co., then the Airdrome, a movie theater, which operated only in the summer, as it was open to the air — no roof. Candy Bill Leach ran a second-hand store in the building now serving Dr. Sunlin as a chiropractor’s office.”

As no Airdome is listed at Anamosa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory the theater probably opened after the directory went to press (which might have been late 1914,) unless the Airdome was the mystery house the directory lists as the Family Theatre.

SethG
SethG on February 4, 2025 at 7:01 am

It might well have been the Family. The ‘Air Dome’ on the map looks like a generic designation, not a name.

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