Edison Theatre

105 Grant Avenue,
Garden City, KS 67846

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rivest266
rivest266 on January 9, 2026 at 1:39 pm

Opened in the Buffalo block on December 26th, 1907. Grand opening ad posted. Last mention: September 29th, 1910.

SethG
SethG on January 9, 2026 at 11:20 am

What a mess! Jones seems a very odd location for the theater. The high school is the only part that shows up on any maps, and the rest of the area was presumably residential. 202 is of course now a parking lot. I suppose we could list that location separately, and then the one in the Opera House would be another listing?

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on January 9, 2026 at 12:30 am

Various sources I’ve come across indicate that houses called the Edison Theatre operated in at least four different locations in Garden City, starting at least as early as 1910. The May 1, 1910 issue of The Nickelodeon said that the 359-seat New Edison Theatre had opened at 202 N. Main Street under the same ownership as the old Edison Theatre on Jones Avenue. 202 N. Main housed a grocery store on the November, 1911 Sanborn map.

A history of the Stevens Opera House says that the then-owner of that place had leased one of the ground floor storefronts under the Opera House to a J. T. Gilman of Lamar, Colorado, on March 2, 1912, and Gilman opened the Edison Theatre in that space shortly thereafter. This third Edison Theatre closed in December, 1913. And then of course we have this fourth Edison on Grant Avenue listed in the 1914-1915 AMPD.