Towne Theatre

The Elite Theatre was part of a regional circuit of silent theaters in the summer destination near the Sheboygan Marsh. The Elite Theatre replaced an existing bowling alley in New Holstein in 1915.

In 1927, a second theatre was built into the 1915-built Buick auto dealership. (That building featured a second floor painting operation to take the stock Buick car models up in an elevator and paint it to the customer’s desires.) The new venue opened as the Majestic Theatre to the plans of architect W.F. Neumann giving the town two silent operations in the Elite Theatre and the Majestic Theatre.

The transition to sound leads the town of 1,274 to combine operations into one. The Majestic Theatre was the chosen location making the transition to sound on film technology. New operators take on the venue and give the place a Streamline Moderne style makeover in 1938 reopening on December 2, 1938.

Joe Cozzoul buys out the venue just after World War II as the fifth operator - and final operator - of the Towne Theatre. Much later, he also opened the outdoor Fort Tepee Drive-In off of Clearwater Lake in 1970. Land grabbing Fred and Cheri Depies came calling in 1976 trying to expand their carpet empire, Fred and Cheri’s Carpet Hut. They were successful in purchasing the property and the Towne Theatre closed permanently on July 5, 1976.

The building was standing and somewhat identifiable as a former theater in the 2020s.

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