Comments from SethG

Showing 251 - 275 of 2,025 comments

SethG
SethG commented about Hardacre Theatre on Feb 8, 2025 at 1:36 pm

When I visited in 2010, the interior was a bit rough. The seats were very shabby, and had been repaired with duct tape, and the ceiling had obvious water damage. The owner/manager was nice enough to let me take some pictures of the inside, without having to sit through a Chipmunks movie.

SethG
SethG commented about Theatre on Feb 8, 2025 at 1:31 pm

The weather was absolutely awful when I was in Tipton, so aside from a few bad shots of the Hardacre marquee, I have next to nothing.

There is a three story Masonic lodge just to the south that contained an opera house up through 1914, and may have been one of the theaters. The armory, which is now a really ugly car dealership, had a stage and scenery on the 1906 map, but it seems to have been gone by 1914.

SethG
SethG commented about Majestic Theatre on Feb 8, 2025 at 1:26 pm

For what it’s worth, the old NRHP listing for downtown calls this the Valerius building. I did not get a picture of this theater, since it was a dismal rainy day when I passed through in 2010.

SethG
SethG commented about Garden Theatre on Feb 8, 2025 at 12:21 pm

Jackie’s is long gone, but this was a hair salon until recently. The latest streetview shows it vacant and for sale.

SethG
SethG commented about Garden Theatre on Feb 8, 2025 at 12:19 pm

This theater was definitely open by Dec. 1916. The building does not appear on the 1906 map. It was probably built as a theater. The 1914-15 American Motion Picture Directory lists a Majestic, which could very well be this building. The Garden is listed in 1926.

SethG
SethG commented about Air Dome on Feb 4, 2025 at 7:01 am

It might well have been the Family. The ‘Air Dome’ on the map looks like a generic designation, not a name.

SethG
SethG commented about Opera House on Feb 4, 2025 at 7:00 am

I think the Plaza has to be the same place. There are no other suitable buildings. There are some cruddy modern buildings, but I don’t think the Plaza was where they are, based on the description (in the NRHP listing for downtown) of what was replaced. Can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of this.

SethG
SethG commented about Jones County Cinema on Feb 1, 2025 at 4:01 pm

Ken’s old comment with the 1993 newspaper article explains why the window at the very top used to say ‘Mike’s Pad’ on it. There must have been an apartment up there.

SethG
SethG commented about Circle Theatre on Feb 1, 2025 at 3:55 pm

This building is in the NRHP listing for downtown as the Watters & Niles building, having been built by the Watters brothers in 1871. No real history is given, but the Niles name may refer to its time as a theater. It could just as well be that a family member ran a store here.

SethG
SethG commented about Crystal Theatre on Jan 28, 2025 at 6:13 am

Ken needs to substitute the text here with a corrected submission I sent him.

SethG
SethG commented about Circle Theatre on Jan 24, 2025 at 1:06 pm

The Circle was not open in 1937. I think the article was confused by his ownership of some theaters in other towns. It doesn’t show up in listings until 1947. It’s still listed in 1952, the 1953 listings are useless, and it’s gone in 1954.

The bar has closed, and the building has been gutted and renovated. I’m not sure what is there now. The building is very old, and was built before 1886.

SethG
SethG commented about Jones County Cinema on Jan 24, 2025 at 12:50 pm

Under Niles' ownership, this was part of a small circuit called the Eastern Iowa Theater Co. It was based here, and in 1931 it included theaters in Cascade, Dyersville, Oelwein (2), and Wyoming.

SethG
SethG commented about Jones County Cinema on Jan 24, 2025 at 12:34 pm

This was gutted sometime after May of 2018, and it looks like the work was finally showing some results by the summer of 2024. All of the 1950s paneling is gone, as is the marquee. The facade has been cleaned, but the window replacements are really cheap and awful, and the little stained glass window on the second floor is gone.

SethG
SethG commented about Pilot Theatre on Jan 24, 2025 at 10:59 am

She might have been talking about the building on S Depot St that has the HR Block in it, or the building on S Davis St that has a real estate office in it. Either way, it’s clear the original contributor supplied a spurious address, and this was never on Main at all. Sounds like the status needs to be changed to demolished. The theater first appears in the 1939 listings, and is still listed in the 1957 directory.

SethG
SethG commented about Delphus Theater on Jan 22, 2025 at 9:52 am

This theater was still open in September 1913, as it appears on the Sanborn map. It may have been renamed the Orpheum, which is the only theater listed in the 1914-15 directory. It probably closed when the Garden opened.

SethG
SethG commented about Columbia Theatre on Jan 22, 2025 at 7:27 am

I have added a fairly poor picture I took late on a winter afternoon.

SethG
SethG commented about Opera House on Jan 21, 2025 at 8:22 pm

The historical address was on Beckett, but the street name was changed by 1921. The 1914-15 directory also lists an Electric, but I do not see anything on the September 1913 map, so I have no idea where it was.

SethG
SethG commented about Mars Theatre on Jan 17, 2025 at 7:22 am

The 1940 Mars was a renaming of the Pastime, which likely had been the Palace. The June 1948 map shows that location as Movies (Vacant). It seems there was a period without any theater.

SethG
SethG commented about Mars Theatre on Jan 17, 2025 at 7:03 am

Has been an archery store since at least 2012. The furniture store sign is still up, and looks like it was probably the theater sign. I didn’t take any pictures of the building (just a few of the sign), but it’s in decent shape. The entry has a cheap remodel, and used to have an ugly shingle awning. When that was removed recently, it exposed the old theater marquee, which appears to have been crudely sawed off to fit the awning.

The address is wrong. 400 is a vacant lot a block away. This building is 501. The dates here are very vague, but the 1948 map shows this building as a store with an attached lumber warehouse that is now gone. The 1949 listings have the Mars.

SethG
SethG commented about Orpheum Theatre on Jan 15, 2025 at 11:48 am

This was replaced by a bank in 1957, but this whole block, along with several others, was destroyed sometime after 1962 to run a freeway through town.

SethG
SethG commented about Lyric Theatre on Jan 15, 2025 at 10:59 am

I’ve added an old picture of mine, and a Sanborn view.

SethG
SethG commented about Electric Theatre on Jan 11, 2025 at 3:10 pm

There is also no Electric listed in 1914-15.

SethG
SethG commented about Electric Theatre on Jan 11, 2025 at 2:50 pm

The comment about the other Electric is now missing, so I don’t know who had what information, but there was no 100 block of W 6th until the bridge was built sometime after 1962. The area where the street is now was mostly industrial.

SethG
SethG commented about Iowa Theatre on Jan 11, 2025 at 2:04 pm

Almost all of the pictures are of the wrong theater. Elmorovivo posted one of a snowy day with the Iowa in the background. That is the correct building. All of the others are wrong.

This was a remodel of a very old building, which was constructed sometime between 1885 and 1892. Originally it was not very deep, and had a central staircase. Between 1900 and 1906 it was extended in the rear all the way to the alley. Both 1906 and 1910 maps show a harness shop here. The 1918 map shows the then Family alone on this section of the block. I think there was a fire that destroyed a large 4 story office building on the corner (the Russell-Lamson Block), as well as possibly an old wooden hotel that was on the other side of the theater. It’s clear from the one photo that at least the front portion of the older building survived.

SethG
SethG commented about Lyric Theatre on Jan 11, 2025 at 1:36 pm

This must be from 1914.