Capitol Theatre
193 S. Central Avenue,
Hartley,
IA
51346
193 S. Central Avenue,
Hartley,
IA
51346
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The Lyric and the Opera House are the two theaters listed at Hartley in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
I’m strongly sure that this started life as the Grand Opera House, but I know it was known as Capitol Theatre since as early as 1927.
The Capitol Theatre closed for the final time on January 17, 1980 with Robert F. Logan in “Mountain Family Robinson”.
The Leese building was constructed in 1925. It incorporated parts of an earlier three story opera house, which still appears on the Jan. 1925 Sanborn. It likely contained a theater from the very beginning.
A list of historic theaters in Iowa prepared in 2009 (pdf here) has this ambiguous line for the address of the Capitol: “193 South Central Avenue or 314 South Central Avenue.” It also gives an alternate name for the structure as the P. A. Leese Building. Here is a photo of the P. A. Leese Building, which is at 193 S. Central Avenue. I’m not sure where the address 314 originated, but it seems an unlikely location for a theater, being on the other side of the railroad tracks from Hartley’s small business district and adjacent to a large grain elevator.
The Capitol was mentioned in the Iowa “Changes in Ownership” column of the July 1, 1929, issue of The Film Daily: “ Hartley — Capitol, sold to C. A. Sartorius by A. M. Inman.” Mr. Sartorius sent in a couple of capsule movie reviews for the “What the Picture Did for Me” column of Motion Picture Herald in 1934.
Someone named H. Midland was operating a theater at Hartley in 1913 according to the December 27 issue of The Moving Picture World, but the name of the theater was not given. The May 6, 1916, issue of the same publication mentioned a Rex Theatre in Hartley, and it might have been the same house that H. Midland was operating in 1913.
The Capitol might have closed for a while in the 1950s, but must have reopened later as it was advertising in the newspaper at least as late as December 30, 1976.
My Father’s family, the MacDowell’s owned and operated this theater. What a nice surprise to find this site!