Commmunity Theater
419 Main Street,
New Market,
IA
51646
419 Main Street,
New Market,
IA
51646
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The name Community Theatre was in use at New Market by early 1928, when a capsule movie review by the Community’s manager E. W. Lawrence appeared in the January 21 issue of Movie Age.
This item appeared in the January 6, 1932 issue of Motion Picture Herald: “J. F. MILLER has purchased the Community Theatre, New Market, Iowa, from Ed Lawrence. Miller hails from Knoxville.”
A D. B. Pace of the Isis Theatre in New Market was submitting reviews to Exhibitors Herald in September, 1926.
Some confusion in the history. The building at 419 was not a clothing store. That was the building at 403, which is still there. I think we can be fairly confident that 419 was the Isis, since the later Community name makes perfect sense for a public hall. I’ve added a map view of that building. If we can determine whether 403 was the Wilson, or something else, I have a photo of it.
This is a poor entry, and the building may not have been demolished. The Pace building (at 403 Main St) is a 2 story concrete block structure from 1912, and was originally a clothing store. The 1933 map shows it extended to the rear, and showing movies.
This may have been the same as the Isis, since the capacity is identical at 250 (nothing I’ve seen shows 310 for anything). The Isis appears in listings from 1914-15, up through 1929. New Market is not listed in the 1930 Yearbook. The Community is listed from 1931, but from 1933 on, it appears closed. The 1933 Sanborn is from January, and doesn’t note it as closed. It’s still listed as closed (or at least without capacity) in the 1946 Yearbook, along with a Wilson, and finally disappears in the 1947 edition.
However, a building at 419 Main, which is now under a big ugly shed housing a trucking business, appears on the 1912 map as a theater, and on the 1933 map as a public hall. That use suggests ‘Community’ as a sensible name. Either way, the Isis and Community were likely the same.
It’s not at all clear where the Wilson was, and that has likely been demolished, since most of downtown is gone. It could have been a reopening of the 1933 theater, if that was not the Community.