Evansville Civic Theatre
717 N. Fulton Avenue,
Evansville,
IN
47710
717 N. Fulton Avenue,
Evansville,
IN
47710
1 person
favorited this theater
Related Websites
Evansville Vivic Theatre (Official)
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Premier Theaters
Functions: Live Performances
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Columbia Theatre, New Columbia Theatre, Cinema West, Cine West
Nearby Theaters
Located on N. Fulton Avenue, the Columbia Theatre opened in 1910. It originally was home to vaudeville and movies and later went on to movies only. It was remodeled in a Streamline Moderne style in 1939, reopening as the New Columbia Theatre.
It went through a couple more name changes over its life span, Cinema West, Cine West before becoming the home to Evansvile Civic Theatre in 1974.
In 1994 the exterior was restored to its 1934 appearance and in August 1996 new seating and complete refurbishing of the interior was completed. Originally seating over 500 with the new seating it now seats 222. It is the home of live performances.
Contributed by
Chuck Van Bibber
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
A picture of the Columbia: <img src=“http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb52/moviejs/SilverScreen9105001.jpg” alt=“Photo Sharing and Video Hosting at Photobucket”>
OK, so that didn’t work: go to photobucket.com and search COLUMBIA and THEATRE – that should bring up several pix of the Columbia (now Civic). I’ll be adding more pix soon from other eras when the theatre looked somewhat different.
This web page from the Willard Library has photos of the Columbia Theatre before and after the 1939 Streamline Modern remodeling job, as well as photos of many other Evansville theaters. The thumbnails are in alphabetical order, so the Columbia photos are near the top of the page.
Many additional photos of the Columbia Theatre can be found on this page at Historic Evansville.
The March 16, 1970 issue of Boxoffice said that the Columbia Theatre, last of Evansville’s old neighborhood houses, had been bought by Theatre A Corp., and was being remodeled and would reopen near the end of March as the 650-seat Cinema West. Theatre A planned to follow a family-friendly policy at the house, offering children’s matinees and occasional live performances. Evansville’s penultimate neighborhood house, the Franklin Theatre, had recently been turned into an adult movie theater.
The website link above has been hijacked and goes to a video gambling site. Here’s the updated link Evansville Civic Theatre