La Salle Theatre
2541 Nicollet Avenue,
Minneapolis,
MN
55404
2541 Nicollet Avenue,
Minneapolis,
MN
55404
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I work in this building currently. Creation Audio. I have photos of the various recording studios there from the mid 1960’s until now. I’ve been searching for a photo of the Garrick or LaSalle Theater but have had no luck.
The July 4, 1914, issue of The Moving Picture World noted the recent opening of the Garrick Photoplay Theatre:
Proceedings of the Minneapolis City Council for February 27, 1914, said that Alderman Walker had moved that John Karlson be permitted to erect a canopy in front of the theater at 2541 Nicollet Avenue. The house was granted a moving picture license on April 24. At the Council meeting of November 28, 1913, R. L. Cox and others had made a protest against the granting of a moving picture license for an as yet unnamed theater at 26th and Nicollet Avenue.Council proceedings from March 28, 1919, noted the issuance of a moving picture relicense to the Garrick Theatre at 2541 Nicollet. A downtown theater called the Garrick had opened in 1915, so the two houses operated under the same name for at least a few years.
The October 13, 1912, issue of The Construction News had an item about a $10,000 moving picture theater to be built at 26th and Nicollet, but given the difference in cost, if this was the same project its scope was expanded considerably. Also, given the gap of more than a year between that item and the opening of the Garrick I don’t think it’s certain that the original architect (the Rose Engineering Company) did the final design, although the protest against granting a license to the theater in November, 1913, suggests that the house might have been completed some time before it was allowed to open.
There is a way for someone in Minneapolis to find out who did the final design for this house (and many other Minneapolis theaters) though. The Minneapolis Plan Vault Collection at the University of Minnesota has copies of plans submitted to the Buildings Inspection Department by architects or builders, and the finding aid lists quite a few theaters among them, including this one. The collection is available for public viewing and, in some cases, copies of items can be made. It is part of the special collections, which are apparently housed at Anderson Library. The library also has the Liebenberg & Kaplan papers, which includes plans and photos of many of the theaters that firm designed.
Some information here needs to be corrected:
I cannot verify this theatre ever had the name Garrick; if it did, it was brief. In 1920 and 1925 the name was LaSalle, so there was no name change in 1930. Many silent theatres changed their names often, or the name while under construction gets into the city directory, and never gets changed for years – in the meantime the name might have been changed at the time the theatre opened. Names also changed with ownerships, fires and a new building or remodeling, etc. Many theatres changed names when sound came in.
The LaSalle Theatre closed in Dec. 1950. The recording studio building permit was pulled in Aug. 1955. This was also a Franklin Amusement Co. theatre (see Avalon, Lyndale) for its entire life; or at least certainly during the sound era. Franklin had it at the time of closing. They also had the Lyndale Theatre, which was in close proximity and that closed in ‘52.
The original theater building was not demolished. It was converted to a recording studio in 1955 and has been used as such since. For many years it was the famous Kay Bank Studios. It is now Creation Audio, which uses the address 2543 Nicollet.
The theater was built in 1914 as the Garrick Theater.
I corrected the street view to show the building, which looks nothing like it did historically.