The Colonial was pretty much my baby, so here’s the skinny: The original Colonial was an ancient building that at one point was the 8th street terminal of the RF&P railroad. It was turned into a theatre in the 1880s, but didn’t succeed, and became a storefront. Jake Wells, who was a professional baseballman at the time, stopped into the store to buy luggage, realized that it had been a theatre, and eventually bought the place and opened it as the Bijou in 1901. In 1905 Jake and his brother Otto opened a new Bijou a block away between 8th and 9th and the older theatre was renamed “Colonial.” By 1919 the Colonial, which was showing both vaude and pictures, was not only outdated but falling apart, so the Wells Brothers commissioned the New Colonial, which opened on October 12, 1921. It was intended purely as a picture theatre; vaudeville shows were then booked exclusively into the Bijou and the Lyric.
The Colonial was pretty much my baby, so here’s the skinny: The original Colonial was an ancient building that at one point was the 8th street terminal of the RF&P railroad. It was turned into a theatre in the 1880s, but didn’t succeed, and became a storefront. Jake Wells, who was a professional baseballman at the time, stopped into the store to buy luggage, realized that it had been a theatre, and eventually bought the place and opened it as the Bijou in 1901. In 1905 Jake and his brother Otto opened a new Bijou a block away between 8th and 9th and the older theatre was renamed “Colonial.” By 1919 the Colonial, which was showing both vaude and pictures, was not only outdated but falling apart, so the Wells Brothers commissioned the New Colonial, which opened on October 12, 1921. It was intended purely as a picture theatre; vaudeville shows were then booked exclusively into the Bijou and the Lyric.