Ellinwood Theatre
117 N. Main Street,
Ellinwood,
KS
67526
117 N. Main Street,
Ellinwood,
KS
67526
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 2 comments
The address is wrong. This was on the east side of the street. The last building on that block has a 113 address, so it was probably something like 117 or 121 at most.
The building was constructed in 1910-11 by the Knights of Columbus, and was a very plain, boxy building with a peaked roof giving a hint of Georgian/Colonial architecture. The 1914-15 AMPD lists a Peoples Theatre. That could be this building, if it was showing films at this point. The early Yearbooks (through 1935 at least) list the Ellinwood with only 200 seats, which is either a mistake, or indicates either a balcony closure or perhaps movies shown elsewhere. 1940 shows it with 400 seats.
It looks like it opened in 1912 and showed films until 1968. In 1930, it converted to RCA Photophone to show talking pictures. 1954, it converted to widescreen for CinemaScope presentations. Then it had live events. It was demolished in 1977.