Elite Theater

Joe Vogel on July 11, 2016 at 3:34 pm

Construction of the former Aid Association for Lutherans Building, now called the 222 Building, was indeed completed in 1952. The Elite Theatre was one of the buildings demolished to make way for the project.

Joe Vogel on May 31, 2012 at 1:32 pm

An issue of Engineering News Record from March, 1921, had this item about plans for a new theater on College Avenue:

“Wis., Appleton—Theater—Elite Theater c/o N. Duffy, mgr., 101 College Ave., having plans prepared by H. Wildhagen, archt., 842 College St, for 2 story, 60 x 135 ft, brick, rein.-con. and tile, on College Ave. About $75,000.”

.If the Elite was indeed designed by Henry Wildhagen, it was one of his later works. He was born in 1856, and by the late 19th century had become one of northern Wisconsin’s leading architects. Many of the buildings he designed are listed on the NRHP.

Neil Duffy opened the first Elite Theatre (probably the house at 101 College Avenue) in Appleton in 1908, according to The Fox Heritage: A History of Wisconsin’s Fox Cities, by Ellen Kort. It was the first movie theater in the Fox River Valley.

It appears that the second Elite Theatre operated for less than thirty years. The headline of a story in the May 15, 1950, issue of the Appleton Post Crescent read “Curtain to ring down Tuesday on last picture in Elite Theater.”

edwilke on October 9, 2007 at 8:18 pm

Here is a photo with a picture of the Elite Theater.

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