Forum: history.stackexchange.com
Tags: <20th-century><united-states><movies>
Title: What is the oldest movie theater in the US that has been in continuous use as a movie theater?
Question: It appears from Wikipedia that the oldest theater in continuous use is in Denmark, but since so much of the film industry is dominated by Hollywood, I was wondering what is the oldest movie theater in the United States.

Answers:
sents: text: The Scenic Theatre in North Dakota claims to be the oldest continually operating theatre on its website.
text: From their website footnote
text: The oldest continually operating theatre in America
text: *
text: * Based on Box Office Magazine's published article on what they credited as the oldest in America & it was 17 years newer than the Scenic Theatre.
text: They claim they opened in 1911.
text: The Newtown
text: Theatre also claims to be the oldest.
text: The Newtown Theatre has an extensive history dating back to 1831.
text: It is, in fact, the oldest movie theater in the United States with it's first movie being shown in 1906.
text: Originally built to be a hall for town gatherings and a "non sectarian" church for traveling ministers, it soon became a center of entertainment in Newtown.
text: If true this would make it older than the Scenic Theatre.
text: Both of these however, don't say whether they regularly showed movies to the public in the early days or not.
text: The Nickelodeon Theatre in Pittsburgh was the first genuine movie theatre in the US.
text: It opened in June, 1905
text: so you're not going to get any earlier than that.
text: It shut down in the 1910s, I think.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/58/Opt
score: 7
sents: text: The Park Theatre in Estes Park, CO is the oldest continually operating theatre west of the Mississippi that was originally built as a motion picture theatre.
text: Its owners now believe that all theaters east of the Mississippi that were older and originally built to be motion picture theaters have closed down in recent years
text: It started playing first run pictures in June of 1913 and just upgraded to digital this year for its 100th year anniversary Sorce: former employee Additional source: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Theatre_(Estes_Park,_Colorado) Also see the theatre's website: http://www.historicparktheatre.com
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2587/Orion
score: 4
sents: text: The Graham Opera House, now known as the State Theater, in Washington, IA has been showing movies since 1894.
text: At that time a local couple (Frank & Indiana Brinton) toured 35mm nitrate cellulose films and magic lantern slides around the Midwest in what were called 'Tab Shows'.
text: The movie industry at that time was not taken seriously and was sometimes considered questionable entertainment.
text: The couple were part owners of the Graham Opera House.
text: The Graham Opera House showed both movies and live plays/operas up through the depression.
text: Sorry, I do not know the exact date it switched to only showing motion pictures or when it became known as the State Theater.
text: The State Theater still maintains it's opera house look as it did when it was first built in the 1890's.
text: I am not claiming this is the oldest continuously run movie theater in the US, but I would say that it is at least in the running.
text: Very little is mentioned about Frank Brinton's Tab Shows online.
text: Here is a link from the Washington County Historical Society that mentions his "moving pictures" in the second to last paragraph--the rest of the article tells about a flying machine he made. http://washingtoncountyhistoricalsociety-iowa.org/feature4_aug_09.html
text: Here is another link from the Kalona News (Washington County, IA) in July 2013 mentioning the current owner of the Brinton films (which survived the past century) and how Brintons toured the Midwest.
text: http://www.kalonanews.com/articles/2013/07/24/news/doc51efed904b0b0238005517.txt
text: I hope this information helps determine the oldest continuously operating movie theater in the US!
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2834/Tim Johnson
score: 4
sents: text: In the San Francisco bay area, California - the Roxie Cinema built in 1909 is the oldest continiously operating theater, changed it's name 7 times starting with the name of C. H. Brown Theater in 1933 the name changed to the Roxie to this day.
text: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roxie_Theater
text: Another theater in the bay area in the town of Vallejo (V-Town),
text: Ca.
text: as it is known is the Empress Theater.
text: Opened in 1911 with the Empress name and today it has the same name. http://www.empresstheatre.org/empress-history.aspx
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2719/Dave Ducay
score: 3
sents: text: The Ruby Theatre in Chelan, Washington was built as a movie theatre by the Kingman brothers and opened in 1914.
text: It has operated as a movie theatre since than.
text: It is privately owned and continues to shown first run films.
text: It has recently installed digital equipment in anticipation of its 100th birthday next year.
text: Its auditorium is essentially the same as when it was constructed.
text: It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in about 1990.
text: The Ruby is believed to be the oldest continuously running movie theatre in the Northwest.
text: Source: Rubytheatre.com
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2559/Joe Creek
score: 2
sents: text: Yes, It was originally thought that the building housing the Priest Theatre, and built in 1910, was a storage facility for automobiles and not used as a theatre until 1926.
text: However, during a campaign to do a required upgrade to digital projection, it was discovered during a history search of the building (via artifacts and articles found) that the theatre building has been used a a theatre since it's construction in 1910.
text: A link to the kickstarter campaign they used for the building fundraising is included below.
text: It has the complete updated history of the building.
text: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/909996519/save-the-priest
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2593/Mike Pittman
score: 2
sents: text: The Minor Theater, located at 1015 H Street in Arcata, California, is one of the oldest buildings in the United States built for feature films that is still open and showing movies.
text: It was the first building in Humboldt County to be built as a "true movie theater." From Wikipedia
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/1796/Paul
score: 0
sents: text: I had worked at the Newtown Theatre for a bit
text: and yes it has shown movies since 1906.
text: A couple years back for our 100th year anniversary we actually went back and found all the newspaper clippings of the movies we showed.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/2381/Mike Coluch
score: 0
sents: text: The oldest OPERATING cinema is in Ottawa, Kansas.
text: The Plaza showed its first movie in 1905 and is still running today.
text: I would know, I live here and watch movies here almost every weekend.
text: They also have a museum that was opened in 2013 to show the history behind it.
answer_details: author: history.stackexchange.com/users/28908/Darbie RaeAnn Lear
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
There is some debate about the oldest theater in the United States. Some say it is the Scenic Theater in North Dakota while others think it is the Nickelodeon Theatre in Pittsburgh.
There is no clear answer to this question since a number of theatres make such a claim, including the Scenic Theatre in North Dakota and the Nickelodeon Theatre in Pittsburgh.