Eagles Theatre
106 W. Market Street,
Wabash,
IN
46992
106 W. Market Street,
Wabash,
IN
46992
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Status should be changed to Open, showing movies and live entertainment. “An Evening With Groucho” stage presentaion starring Frank Ferrante is there this week, along with “The Little Mermaid” 2023 film.
Oops, forgot the other thing I was going to link to. This article posted by input Fort Wayne in 2018 starts with the Clyde Theatre in Wabash, but then continues with the Eagles Theatre. There are several photos showing the renovations underway in both the theater and other parts of the building.
The Eagles Theatre is now operated under the auspices of the Honeywell Foundation, and has a new web site here.
Needless to say the July, 2020 target for reopening was missed. The earliest live performance currently scheduled for the Eagles Theatre is February 25, 2021, but personally I wouldn’t bet on it. No movies are currently scheduled, but management is hopeful that they will return this year.
Yarnelle is indeed the spelling used in both the Gus Hill guide and the American Motion Picture Directory. I’ve found the name used in local publications during the years 1913, 1914 and 1915.
The renovated Eagles Theatre was slated to reopen in March, 2020, but due to the coronavirus pandemic, events have been rescheduled, the target for opening now being July. The renovated Eagles Theatre has 560 seats. The basement now features a new 50-seat venue designed for movies, called the Ferguson Theatre.
From the NRHP listing for downtown comes the following information: The Fraternal Order of Eagles started construction on the building in July, 1905. While the theater and office rental space were successful, the building was sold at public auction in 1912, and was renamed the Yarnelle Building. (This also explains why the 1910 and 1920 Sanborns show the meeting hall being an Elks lodge, not an Eagles aerie.) The theater space was leased to the Dickson brothers (William and Percy) in 1913. They bought the building in 1917, presumably changing the name of the theater back.
The AKA is almost certainly Yarnelle, not ‘Yarnell’. There was a Yarnelle Lumber & Coal Co. in town.
The NHP registration form for the Wabash Downtown Historic District says that the Eagles Theatre opened on March 30, 1906. The house was leased to the Dickson Brothers in 1913, and they bought the building in 1917, operating the theater through the 1940s. William and Percy Dickson also owned the Colonial, Orpheum, Family and Dreamland Theatres in Wabash, according to the December 15, 1917 issue of Motography. As of 1912 they had also owned a house on Wabash Street called the Princess Theatre.
For some time in the mid-1910s the Eagles was known as the Yarnelle Theatre, which is how it was listed in the 1914 Gus Hill Directory. The 1914-1915 American Motion Picture Directory double lists the house under both names. By 1918 the name had reverted to Eagles Theatre.
Papers of the Fort Wayne architectural firm Strauss Associates indicate that A. M. Strauss planned alterations for the Eagles Theatre twice, once in the late 1920s and again in 1939.
The Eagles Theatre is currently closed and undergoing major renovations. Among other changes, a second screen will be added to the house in a 40-seat auditorium to be carved from part of the basement. The main auditorium, recently seating only 450, will be expanded to 550 seats by reopening the balcony. The stage facilities will be upgraded to accommodate live events as well as movies. Upper floors of the building will have rooms for various purposes, including audio and video recording facilities and meeting rooms. The restored fourth floor ballroom, long derelict, will host events seating up to 200. Reconstruction began in late 2017, and is expected to take between 18 months and two years.
More details about the project here.
Here is an early interior photo of the Eagles Theatre.
There was also a Crest Theatre on Market Street, in addition to the Eagles and the Colonial. But I haven’t been able to find any other information on it, other than a 1955 photo on the Wabash Memories Facebook page. If anyone can find an address or build date, I’ll set up a CT page for it.
1940 photo added, photo copyright and courtesy of the Wabash Memories Facebook page. (XX)
New owner information:
View link
i went to a movie at the eagles in the late 90’s, while i was attending college in a nearby town.
it’s a great little movie theatre that has somehow survived despite cineplexes in neighboring areas. it makes me happy to see that it is still in business.
Here is another photo, circa 1920s:
http://tinyurl.com/342oq9
Here is a link to an interesting article about this theater and a few others in Indiana:
http://tinyurl.com/hju7t
I was recently given a guided tour of the Eagles. we were shown the second and third balconies, the projection room, and even the top-floor ballroom. Amazing design and architecture make the Eagles a beautiful treasure that should never be allowed to slip away.