Theatre
200 N. Riverview Street,
Bellevue,
IA
52031
200 N. Riverview Street,
Bellevue,
IA
52031
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This ‘Picture Theatre’ appears on the April 1914 Sanborn, in an old two-story brick commercial building dating to sometime before 1885. The 1902 map shows this as a general store.
The historic address was 202 N. Water Street, but the street name was changed at some point. It’s unclear when the theatre closed, but it was remodeled into retail or offices. It now appears to be used by the apartments upstairs. The building is in excellent shape, with most architectural detail preserved.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
There is a Belleview Iowa in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory, but no Bellevue. It’s undoubtedly an error by the Directory. The house listed at “Belleview” was called the Cozy Theatre. The 1926 FDY still lists a 350-seat house called the Cozy as the only theater at Bellevue. The 1926 house was at a different location, though.
This article from the July 5, 2023 Bellevue Herald-Leader discusses both locations. The Front Street (apparently another former name of Riverview Street) Cozy Theatre opened on May 19, 1913. The Cozy moved to its second location, at 118 S. 2nd Street, in 1916, and operated there into the 1970s. Both buildings are still standing.
I’ve added a photo of this theater. There is another building at 109? Riverview that obviously was a theater, and looks very old. That is the building pictured in the article. I didn’t mess with the paywall, but 118 S 2nd is just a cruddy little shed building which houses the newspaper. This whole part of Iowa has uselessly bad streetview coverage, which makes it a little harder to figure things out.
This must have been the 1913 Cozy, which would make this the Ahlers building. The other building does not appear on the 1914 map, but it’s so old-fashioned that it must be the second Cozy, from 1916. I may just add it. I think the newspaper article must have goofed on the address.
Okay, I checked the article again and it does say the second location of the Cozy was also on Front Street. I must have mistaken the newspaper’s address for the theater address when looking at the Google results summary.
Is there a paywall on my link? I’m still not getting one. It might be because my browser has a VPN setting I’m using. That cab confuse some websites into not blocking access.