TJO – “ceiling was quite high” – are your memories perhaps those of a child? The auditorium part of the building was a barrel roof on about an 8 foot wall. The roof had the appearance of a large quonset hut on top of concrete block walls. The lobby area on the front of the building added to the illusion of a much larger structure with its two story mansard-like facade. You are correct, there was no balcony and it was a very basic decor. — The whole area was redeveloped by the city when the new “Community State Bank” was built and the Strip mall to the south. We lost the theater, Jimmy’s Lemon Tree, and a few other neighborhood mainstays…in the name of
progress.
Jensen has it right, they started as one screen big house. (I worked there from 66-69.) It was built on an old dump, and the concession stand and attached projection booth kept settling. In the mid ‘70s when they had to rebuild the booth, they added screens in the NW and SW corners and added west directed projector and converted it to a tri-plex. In my day, it was open 365 days a year and in Minnesota that meant pole mounted car-heaters. Lots of maintenance…
TJO – “ceiling was quite high” – are your memories perhaps those of a child? The auditorium part of the building was a barrel roof on about an 8 foot wall. The roof had the appearance of a large quonset hut on top of concrete block walls. The lobby area on the front of the building added to the illusion of a much larger structure with its two story mansard-like facade. You are correct, there was no balcony and it was a very basic decor. — The whole area was redeveloped by the city when the new “Community State Bank” was built and the Strip mall to the south. We lost the theater, Jimmy’s Lemon Tree, and a few other neighborhood mainstays…in the name of
progress.
Jensen has it right, they started as one screen big house. (I worked there from 66-69.) It was built on an old dump, and the concession stand and attached projection booth kept settling. In the mid ‘70s when they had to rebuild the booth, they added screens in the NW and SW corners and added west directed projector and converted it to a tri-plex. In my day, it was open 365 days a year and in Minnesota that meant pole mounted car-heaters. Lots of maintenance…