Ravalli Theatre

Sam Lucas commissioned his Lucas Opera House built in 1895 for $30,000. The first floor was for retail and the upstairs was for entertainment. This is where locals likely saw silent movies for the first time.

Films proved popular and L.H. Sutton repositioned the venue as the Grand Theatre moving solely to films and vaudeville. It was part of a fledgling six-venue circuit in Montana. The Grand Theatre launched November 23, 1916 with Mary Pickford in “The Eternal Grind”.

Sutton soon decided to operate a more contemporary theatre. The Liberty Theatre launched in 1919 and the Grand Theatre became the second tier house and only used part-time.

New operators took on the house and renamed it the Ravalli Theatre re-launching on November 19, 1920 with “Homespun Folks”. The Ravalli Theatre played films throughout most of the 1920’s but didn’t convert to sound. It converted to the opera house’s original concept of hosting live stage shows, political conventions, church gatherings, school graduations, and many other events for the next decade and a half before closing.

In 1950, the space was converted to the Rollerdrome, a long-standing roller skating rink. The main retail floor originally hosted businesses including its original tenant, a clothing store followed by a saloon, a bank, and its longest-running tenant, the Downing Rexall Pharmacy.

Through the years the building housed a saloon, 2 theatres and a rolling rink.
In the early-1920’s the First National Bank moved here but the bank soon failed and Downing Pharmacy moved in. It was owned by Lewis Downing and later his son Bill. The name of the drug store was changed to Hamilton Pharmacy. The building burned down in 1986.

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