Civic Theater

Joe Vogel on March 1, 2016 at 5:23 pm

The Civic Theatre was located at 321 N. Main Street. An extract from an article about Fostoria’s movie houses by Gene Kinn on this web page says that “[t]he old Civic theater building is still standing and at one time was used as a youth center, presently used as a sharing kitchen to prepare meals for area residents.”

The building is still standing in 2016 (it was the State Theatre that was demolished in 2000) and still houses a sharing kitchen. The rather plain brick building looks quite old, and might even date from the late 19th century, though if so it was probably not built as a theater, as it lacks a stage house, or any indication that it ever had one. Still, it might have been purpose-built as a movie house, perhaps in the 1910s. The Civic Theatre was in operation prior to 1937, the year in which all three of Fostoria’s movie houses came under the control of Schine Theatres, as noted in the July 2 issue of The Film Daily.