Taproot Theatre

Shortly after the theater was re-opened by the 7 Gables circuit in 1980, a newly promoted assistant manager was closing one night. There had been issues of break ins through the rear exit doors that opened to the alley behind the theater and the solution was to chain and padlock them from the inside. The green assistant manager, in a hurry to go home, did not check carefully to make sure that all patrons had left for the night. At about 4:00 AM, the man who had been asleep in one of the back rows woke up to find himself locked inside an empty theater. He used the theater phone to call the fire department who came to break in so he could leave. No, I was not the assistant manager mentioned above.

I remember this smaller neighborhood theatre in the 1950’s as having a curtain and clown murals that were colorful on the side walls. Movies shown there were family style general audience. In the 60’s and 70’s the clowns may have remained but the screen size was enlarged and sound improved I believe. Movies were more adult and porno was even introduced at times.

This house actually opened in 1925 as the Rainbow Theatre. The August 24, 1925, issue of The Film Daily said under the headline “New Seattle House” that “E. H. Habrocuk recently opened his new 500 seater Rainbow Theater at 140 N. 85th Street.”

The Grand Theatre that was designed by E. W. Houghton, mentioned in the 1909 Seattle Star article I cited earlier, was not this theater, but the Grand Opera House, built in 1898-1900. It was renamed the Hippodrome Theatre in 1915. It was gutted by a fire in 1917 and was later converted into a parking garage. I don’t know if it ever operated as a movie theater.

An article in the September 29, 1909, issue of the Seattle Star said that the Grand was one of the Seattle theaters that had been designed by architect E. W. Houghton. It mentioned two others, one being the Moore, but the scan of the paper is bad and the name of the third Houghton-designed house is almost unreadable, but it was probably the Majestic, which appears in the theater listings of that same issue of the paper.

The current total of seats at Taproot is 228. Renovation and conversion to live theater cut the number of seats.

Formerly known as the Greenwood Grand, this theater is now the home to the Taproot Theatre Company.