Theatre
112-114 N. Mill Street,
Beloit,
KS
67420
112-114 N. Mill Street,
Beloit,
KS
67420
No one has favorited this theater yet
Additional Info
Nearby Theaters
This theatre appears on the 1917 map, in a very wide one story building which replaced a tiny wooden shop located here on the 1911 map. It had opened in 1914. The building appears to be the sort of early garage or dealership constructed during this period. The shape was not practical for movies.
Whatever its original or later purpose, this building was demolished long ago, and the site is a parking lot.
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 3 comments)
The November 8, 1916 Moving Picture World mentions a house called the Grant Theatre in Beloit, run by an E. T. Burgan. By 1926, the only theater listed at Beloit in the FDY was a 700-seat house called the Grand, still listed in 1929. Grant/Grand makes me stroke my chin whiskers. Hmmm.
You could definitely have fit 700 people in here, although I don’t know how anyone would have seen the screen with the building only being 15 feet tall. There’s a 1927(?) map, but it’s not online.
Since we don’t have a later map, I was thinking there could have been alterations to the building at some point after 1917. Partial reconstruction was not rare for successful early theaters.
The Grand Theatre is mentioned in the November 10, 1917 issue of The Moving Picture Weekly, and there is a family web site claiming that a Mr. William S. Gabel built the Grand in 1913, and it opened in 1914. The Gabel family owned the building until 1929, when it was sold to Dickinson Theatres. But if there are no other theaters in Beloit (aside from the Opera House, which we know to be older) on the 1917 Sanborn, this must be the Grand, however poor the sight lines must have been.