Theater
6 N. Nickerson Street,
Nickerson,
KS
67561
6 N. Nickerson Street,
Nickerson,
KS
67561
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Additional Info
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This early theater appears on the 1912 Sanborn. It was located in the southern half of a two story brick commercial building constructed sometime between 1885 and 1891. The 1905 map shows a furniture store here.
Assuming this theater was still operating in 1914-15, the AMPD lists three possibilities. The Palace Theater and Pastime Theater are both listed on ‘Main Street’, which never existed, and likely refers to Nickerson Street. There is also an Electric Theatre with no address information. One of the theater names may have belonged to a long-vanished opera house one block up on the other side of the street.
The 20th century has been unkind to Nickerson. Downtown is almost completely destroyed, with only two small two story buildings and a few shopfronts remaining of the two block downtown. A dull modern post office occupies most of this portion of the block today.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Nickerson’s longest-running movie theater appears to have been one called the Gem, but an early (probably mid-1910s) real photo postcard on sale at eBay shows it in a single-story building across the street from 6 N. Nickerson. The earliest mention of the Gem I’ve found in trade journals is from 1918, and it is mentioned again in 1923 and is listed in FDYs from 1926 and 1929. It might have started out at 6 N. Nickerson and later moved, or vice-versa, and might have been listed under a different name in the 1914-1915 AMPD.
There is at least one later map which would help to clarify this, but it’s not available online.