Theatre
3 S. Federal Avenue,
Mason City,
IA
50401
3 S. Federal Avenue,
Mason City,
IA
50401
No one has favorited this theater yet
This short-lived theatre appears on the 1915 Sanborn in an old two-story stone commercial building, which was constructed sometime between 1892 and 1897. The 1909 map shows a dry goods store here.
This was not a success, with several large theatres just to the south, and the 1918 map shows this as a dry goods store and millinery.
The building today is in decent shape, and has been incorporated into the building on the corner as part of a clothing store.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
Two possible names for this house are mentioned in this item from Motography’s issue of January 6, 1917: “Cal Branson has sold the Electric Theater at Mason City to Charles Carragher, owner of the Palm Theater. Possession will be taken immediately and, no doubt, one of the places will be closed during the winter months.”
But if this address was part of a Kresge store in 1953, then the theater was called the Idle Hour, briefly mentioned in this long article originally published by the Globe Gazette for Mason City’s centennial that year.
None of those three theater names appear in the 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory.
The Idle Hour was almost certainly elsewhere. The Kresge building is at 17 N Federal.