Crystal Theatre

423 Main Street,
Towanda, KS 67144

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SethG
SethG on April 28, 2026 at 9:41 am

It seems this was closed by 1926, as only the far larger Towanda, PA is listed. It sounds like this was open before 1918. The building appears to be from sometime around 1910, and the cars in the photos look like very early models. The purpose-built theater, if it ever happened, is likely gone. There is a 1926 map, but it is not available online.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 29, 2012 at 11:17 am

So far, the only early trade journal reference I’ve found to movie theaters in Towanda, Kansas, is this item from the January 5, 1918, issue of The Moving Picture World:

“Towanda, Kan. —Towanda is soon to have another picture show building. Joel Davis is planning a new brick theater building on Main street.”
As the Crystal was in a bank building, and Mr. Davis was planning what sounds like a dedicated theater building, his project probably wasn’t the Crystal, but as it also sound as though Towanda already had a t least one theater in operation, perhaps that one was the Crystal. The bank building does look as though it could date from before 1918, and Crystal was a very popular name for theaters in the 1910s.