Kickapoo Theatre

Additional history credit Richard Crabtree. Four Star Theater should be added to Previous Names, 57-59.

The Princess Theater on Historic C-Street. Around 1916 the Princess moved across down the street and to the North side of Commercial St. The main building itself was at 313/15 E Commercial Street. Another building would come into play in later years that would become part of the Princess is the building at 307-09 E Commercial St. The building today is now 305 E Commercial Street and it has a lovey ghost sign on the side of the building that says Beeman’s Pepsin Gum. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beemans_gum The building at 305 E Commercial has it’s own history. It was built in 1883 by Henry H Kaufholz . He had his second grocery store there. Mr Kaufholz also has a great history to read click here and scroll to his name https://thelibrary.org/lochist/history/directory/NSpfd.html But today we are focusing on the Princess! In 1934 the theater acquired the building next door that we were just talking about, and so its address was now 309-11-13 E Commercial. After World War II The Princess was remodeled and in 1946 it was renamed the Kickapoo. The Kickapoo Theater lasted till 1957. The building set vacant till later in that year and it became Four Star Theater for one year. And it was vacant again in 1959. In 1977 most of the theater was raised and it is now part of the parking lot for the Historic C-Street farmers market. But the building that is now 305 E Commercial that was part of the three theaters would later become part of Roderique Music & Book store. Hamlin & Fertina Roderique started their store in 1951 at 301-03 E Commercial St. The expanded into 305 in the early 1960’s. The store was there till 1981.

The Princess actually opened in late 1916, not 1917. According to the December 30, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World, “[t]he new Princess Theater has been opened under the management of S. E. Wilhoit.”

The second Princess/Kickapoo Theatre opened in 1917. I see that the 1944 Kickapoo grand opening ad rivest266 just posted gives the address as 315 E. Commercial Street. An October 13, 1956 Boxoffice item announcing the launch of an art movie series at the Kickapoo said that the house was operated by Fox Midwest Theatres.

Although the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory lists the original Princess Theatre at 408 E. Commercial, the web page I cited in an earlier comment says that it was on the south side of Commercial two doors east of Benton Avenue, which puts it in the modern 500 E. block. Currently the second door east of Benton is occupied by Ruthie’s C Street Bar, at 504 E. Commercial. It is a very old building, and if the original Princess was there it is still standing.

Addresses in Springfield are very weird. In the middle of the block of Commercial between Booneville Avenue and Campbell Avenue the numbers instantly jump from the 200 E. block to the 300 W. block. I have no idea how to account for the three missing blocks. Perhaps they are the site of the Missouri branch of Hogwarts Academy.

The Princess operated in two locations, but if this web page is correct, neither was at the modern address 408 E. Commercial Street. The brief paragraph about the two Princesses appears to have been from an oral history (or perhaps was just awkwardly written, as the wording is a bit ambiguous), but it appears that the first Princess Theatre was at the second door east of Benton Avenue on the south side of Commercial Street, which would make its modern address 502 E. Commercial.

The first Princess was replaced by a new Princess in 1917, which must have been the one at 307 E. Commercial. That building appears to have been demolished. It’s impossible to tell if the building at 500-502 E.Commercial is an old building that’s been remodeled or is a replacement for the building the first Princess was in.

My previous comment should read “fell victim.”

This theatre should be listed as closed/demolished. I used the Springfield-Greene County website and pulled up the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Commerical Street at this address. Springfield addresses went through a change in the late 1940s, and it can be difficult to pin down where things were. However, the fire insurance map shows the theatre, including the fact that it had a balcony. This is also the same place where the Princess Theatre was. I am not certain if it is the same building or not, but the site is the same one. I then pulled up the address from the county assessor page, and there is a vacant lot there. The two buildings surounding the old theatre are there, but the theatre itself is gone.