Palace Theatre

Joe Vogel on May 13, 2015 at 4:40 pm

The web page kencmcintyre linked to is gone, but PSTOS has this page about the Palace, with a couple of exterior photos, though both were taken from oblique angles.

A brief biography of John Spickett, original operator of the Palace, says that he was a former theatrical performer, producer and manager who settled in Juneau in 1898, and entered the movie business after his term as the local postmaster ended in 1912. His first venture was called the Orpheum, and after it closed he operated the Palace and another house called the Dream. The Dream closed in the late 1920s, and about the same time he sold the Palace to Lawrence Kubley, operator of theaters at Ketchikan.

It was Kubley who renamed the house the Capitol. He remodeled the theater and reopened it under the new name in January, 1931.

Spickett’s biography is one of many that were published by a fraternal organization called Pioneers of Alaska, the collection being available online in this PDF.