Mabton Theatre
324 B Street,
Mabton,
WA
98935
324 B Street,
Mabton,
WA
98935
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Erected in 1948 by Vern Powell. In addition to the theatre the building contained a beauty salon, private quarters for the owner and rental units.
It is unclear whether the Mabton Theatre was planned before the Liberty (also on Cinema Treasures) was destroyed by fire earlier in 1948 or subsequently.
Years later there is still a beauty salon but the theatre has become the Silver Dollar Cafe.
I believe the sign for the cafe is just a reworking of the theatre marquee.
Contributed by
rob boehm
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
This is immediately built right after the Liberty fire, and is also the replacement of the Liberty, located at the same address. The “new” Mabton opened on Christmas Day 1948 after major remodeling from the old Liberty’s damage from the August 1948 fire.
If you check Google’s street view of this theater you can see that the auditorium is in a Quonset structure attached to the back of what looks like an older commercial building. As for the sequence of events, the fire that destroyed the Liberty Theatre was reported in the August 21, 1948 issue of Boxoffice. The item said that the town would not be without movies for long though, as the new theater being built there by Vern Powell was expected to open within the next two months.
An item in the June 15, 1948 issue of Boxoffice reported that ground had been broken in Mabton for a new, 400-seat house that was expected to open on July 15. The owner’s name was mistakenly given as Dowell rather than Powell, and the July 15 opening date was hilariously overoptimistic, but the item does show that the new theater was planned quite some time before the August fire.
Incidentally, the Mabton Theatre, not the Liberty, is listed in the 1945 FDY, though it was listed as closed. Perhaps it was renamed Liberty after reopening. In 1945 it had 230 seats, as opposed to the 364 listed for the Mabton Theatre in the 1951 year book.