Ritz Theatre

An Opera House at Oelwein is mentioned in Moving Picture World February 20, 1909, when a Mr. J. G. Capron of Waterloo purchased it with the intention of operating it as a vaudeville and movie house. It is mentioned again in the November 13, 1915 issue, when another new owner, A. L. Smith, converted it into a movie theater.

The origin of this opera house might have been in 1907. An item dateline Oelwein in the December 29, 1906 issue of The Improvement Bulletin said that “J. T. and J. W. Ridler will probably erect an opera house in the spring.” The March 21, 1907 issue of the same journal said “Messers. Ridler and Field have a site and are having plans prepared for the proposed opera house.”

A March 30, 1907 item reveals more, and the plans were fairly elaborate. Architect James Cox of Estherville had prepared plans for a three story brick building, 70 x 140 feet. If this particular project got built it should be quite obvious on the Sanborn map. I haven’t found any later notices to indicate if the project was completed, scaled back, or abandoned.

If completed as originally planned it would certainly have accommodated more seats than the 400 in the Ritz. It also failed to getting into the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but the 1912-1913 Cahn guide lists a Phillips Opera House, rather small at about 510 seats including a gallery with 100, and a stage only 18 feet from footlights to the back wall and a proscenium only 10 x 22.

The 1913 Cahn guide lists the Phillips Opera House as a ground floor theater (the earlier opera house was also owned by and named for Mr. Phillips– Cahn guides, 1897-98, 1898-99.) One thing that troubles me is that the Sanborn map of the building at 8 N. Frederick doesn’t show a balcony, as Sanborn maps invariably (as far as I know) did when such existed. The Cahn guide lists a balcony, gallery and boxes for the opera house. If this fairly large opera house existed in 1913, why isn’t it on the 1914 Sanborn? It could have burned down, of course, but I’ve found no evidence that such a thing happened.

I do think it far more likely that the Cahn guide would list a theater that wasn’t actually there, or wasn’t as described, than that the Sanborn map would miss a building that actually was there, or would fail to note features as significant as a balcony, gallery and boxes. In fact the latter seems near impossible while the former wouldn’t surprise me at all. All I can think of is that either the opera house was destroyed sometime in 1913, or that the original project planned in 1907 was scaled back to the more modest theater that appears on the 1914 Sanborn. At least so far, the latter seems more likely.

Also, a 1912 Iowa business directory lists three theaters at Oelwein: the Lyric, the Orpheum, and the Phillips Opera House. The Orpheum and Opera House might have been the same theater, and I’ve been thinking that the Lyric, which I found mentioned in both 1911 and in December, 1910, might have been an earlier name for the Colonial.