Plaza Theatre

Built in 1925 as a replacement for an earlier Crook’s Opera House, an upstairs theater which had been destroyed by fire, this was the longest-lived theater in Howard, and operated under the names Crook’s Opera House, Crook’s Theatre, Howard Theatre, and, from 1940 until closing, Plaza Theatre. Reports from the time of construction said that the stage was 20x42 feet, and reminiscences by multiple patrons indicated that there was a balcony.

In 1962, one of the adjacent storefronts was converted into the Plaza Grill, and a window in the theater lobby allowed patrons to order such refreshments as hamburgers, French fries, and fountain drinks to enjoy during the movie. The last operator of the Plaza Theatre and Grill might have been a Donna Lee Miller, whose 2023 obituary said that she bought the business in 1981 and operated it for several years. She moved to Wichita in 1988, and the theater might have closed at that time.

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