Grand Theatre

A vacant lot in 1904, by 1911 the site of the Grand Theatre was occupied by a two-story wood framed building with a furniture store on the ground floor and an Opera House upstairs. By 1919, a Sanborn map shows a motion picture theater on the ground floor and a “Hall” upstairs. The map now has the notation “stuccoed” for the building, which was still wood framed. It seems likely that the modern building is the same one, but with a brick veneer added at some point. It also seems likely that movies were shown in the upstairs hall for some time before the dedicated movie house was installed on the ground floor.

For most of its history the Grand was operated by members of the Vincent family. For five years between 1929 and 1934 it was operated by Emil Plain. A Thursday, January 24, 1929 item about the transfer in Film Daily noted that Wilfrid Vincent had operated the house for about ten years, suggesting that it might have been he who had installed the house on the ground floor, possibly by late 1918 and certainly by August, 1919, when it appeared on the Sanborn map. After Plain’s lease expired in 1934, the Grand returned to the Vincents control, operated by Wilfrid’s son Irving and then by Irving’s wife Magdalene, who was still operating the house when it closed in 1976.