Electric Theatre

627 Lafayette Street,
Waterloo, IA 50703

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Additional Info

Previous Names: Turner Hall

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Electric Theatre

Waterloo’s Turner Hall, a social/athletic club for the German community, was constructed sometime before 1885. It was a simple wooden structure, rather like a church in plan.

Still active in 1900, by 1906 it had become the Electric Theatre, operated by Johnson & Nichols with 3 shows a day. It was here that the first movies in Waterloo were shown. This was a short-lived operation, and the 1910 map shows this corner occupied by a set of small brick storefronts, which themselves were demolished sometime after 1962.

This section of the block is a wasteland of surface parking.

Note: Not to be confused with the 200-seat Electric Theatre, located at 116 6th Street which was operating by March 1908.

Contributed by Seth Gaines

Recent comments (view all 2 comments)

SethG
SethG on July 19, 2023 at 9:38 am

Note that odds and evens switched sides sometime after the theater was demolished.

SethG
SethG on July 19, 2023 at 9:53 am

That other Electric must have been at 116 W 6th, since the entire even side of the 100 block of E 6th was the C.G.W. Railroad freight depot. I didn’t look at the part of town across the river yet.

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