Davis Theatre
202 W. Main Street,
West Plains,
MO
65775
202 W. Main Street,
West Plains,
MO
65775
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Architects: Robert O. Boller
Firms: Boller Brothers
Functions: Furniture Showroom
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Nearby Theaters
This attractive yellow brick facade is located just west of the courthouse. There is an unusual amount of upper story glazing, including a large vertical window in the center, flanked by two pieces of ornamental concrete. The ground floor is now home to the Norman Orr office furniture store. It may have closed around 1986, when the store opened.
A rather shoddy acoustic drop ceiling has been installed on the ground floor. Mounting brackets for five letters are visible, suggesting that the last marquee was nothing special, probably just cruddy interior-lit plastic.
Many thanks to Charles Van Bibber for confirming the identity.
Contributed by
Seth Gaines
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Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Just noticed that Charles had provided the opening date in our correspondence. The theater opened in 1949.
Thought I would add a little bit of info about the Davis. My family now owns the building as well as Norman Orr Office Supply which has occupied the building since late 1985. Unfortunately when the davis closed (date unknown) it was converted into retail space. Before we moved the office supply store there it was occupied by a Montgomery Ward catalog store. The five mounting brackets where for the W-A-R-D-S sign and are not the original brackets for the Marquee. I have an old picture that was in the local newspaper, and you can see the original marquee, Unfortunately it is blocked in the picture by a telephone pole. I believe it reads Vista. I spent most of the day today removing the metal panels on the bottom floor of the building that, for some reason, where installed in the 60’s. The brick underneath is in excellent shape. Under the panels on both sides of the west window are built in frames for movie poster that were preserved perfectly underneath the siding. I was really surprised to find them! There also was a sizable awning over the western window, which used to serve as the front door of the theater. It was removed, I assume, when the bulding was converted. The inside is a total mess!! The balcony, Light fixtures, decorations where all removed long ago. The original water fountain and one of the brass light fixtures can be seen in th upstairs of the opera house. I think they they where removed from the dumpster during the gutting of the building. The back of the bulding (where the screen used to be) was filled in with concrete so that Montgomery Ward could have a Tire and Battery shop in the back end of the building. Sadly the inside is beyond restoration, but I am doing my best to renovate the outside to its original grandeur. If anybody has any info or old photographs of the Davis theater, Please let me know.
The opening of the theater should be listed as 1930. Confirmed by old newspaper articles.
The Davis Theatre was renamed the Vista Theatre in 1958, after the Davis family sold the house. I’ve found no mentions of the Vista Theatre in Boxoffice after 1958, though.
Dean Davis died in 1953, and Boxoffice published an obituary in its February 7 issue. The obituary said that he built the Davis Theatre in West Plains in 1927 (but didn’t name the source for the date) and that the house originally had 620 seats. The additional seating must have been in the missing balcony Grigsby mentions in his Sep 7, 2005, comment above.
At the time of his death, Davis also operated the Avenue theater and a drive-in at West Plains, and the Davis and Cameo Theatres and a drive-in at Mountain Grove MO.