Ritz Theatre

Paul Golterman equipped the former storeroom of the Gillis Jones Rice Mill and made a 480-seat capable but 400-seat total venue called the Ritz Theatre. (He said he would add the 80 seats when business warranted such.) The Ritz opened with a soft launch on September 4, 1935 with Bill Cody in “The Cyclone Ranger” followed by a grand opening the next night with “Midnight Alarm.” It was equipped with a Jewell Ultra-Phone Sound System.

The Ritz made it to the end of its 15-year leasing opt out in early 1950. The Moose Club took it over staging shows and sporadic informational film screenings. The building was damaged in a June 1956 fire and sold to the City of St. Charles for parking for $21,500. The building appears to date back to the 1860s as the Lafayette Mills originally selling wheat, rye and buckwheat flour all the way to 1931 under names that included: Kremer & Marten, Kremer’s (adding livestock feed), St. Charles Roller (adding oats), Werner-Liebrock, and Gillis Jones (adding rice at the onset of the Depression). The storeroom’s second floor also held a 19th Century tavern, the Spring Brewery Saloon. The entire structure was demolished and is the contemporary home of Kister Park.

I would suggest “demolished” and formerly “Mill.”