State Theatre has long history in Washington

    The history of the State Theatre is long and storied. The theatre opened in 1893, but was by no means the city?s first. The first public hall was Corette Hall, located on the northwest corner of the square. The building was the site of a circus production in 1866, which consisted solely of a minstrel show on the first day of the performance because the rest of the wagon outfit got stuck in the mud outside town.

    Corette Hall served as an opera house, dance hall and courtroom until 1868. In 1870, it was divided into separate offices.

    In 1868, the Everson Opera House opened across the corner on the east side. It was a three-story brick structure that cost $24,000 to build. As Corette Hall before it, the Everson Opera House doubled as a courtroom. When the owner Norman Everson died, the opera hall on the third floor was converted into a Masonic Lodge, and was used as such until 1930 when the building burnt to the ground.

    There was a push to build a ?real? opera house in the 1880s. In 1886, the Graham Opera House was built on the southeast corner of the square. It was named after an influential and wealthy Washingtonian named John Graham, and seated more than 700 people. This building was consumed by fire in 1892 after just six years of operation. The stockholders elected not to rebuild, and once again the town was without an opera house.

    The town was able to raise enough money to build another opera house one year later. The new building was what we today call the ?State Theatre,? but back then was called Graham Opera House ? the same name as the short-lived opera house on the other end of the block. To finance the project, tickets to the first performance were sold for $5 apiece. The first event in the building was a performance by Clara Morris in late 1893 before the building was finished. Folding chairs had to be brought in from other buildings because the opera house was not yet complete.

    The new Graham Opera House featured six dressing rooms and electric lights in the ceiling. It showed its first motion picture in 1897.

    A Washington newspaper reported at the time:

    ?On Thursday eve. May 13 the patrons of the Graham will have the pleasure of seeing the famous Nineteenth Century marvel, the famous Edison Projecting machine, or kinetoscope. Showing all the latest films, including the surf scene, artillery drill cavalry charge, New York fast express (70 miles an hour), Niagara Falls, fire engine going to a fire, shooting the chutes, burning building, McKinley inauguration ceremonies and parade and fifty other famous scenes.?

    A local man named W.F. (Frank) Brinton showed many films in the 1890s about the Spanish-American War. He showed films with titles such as the Battle of Manila (Philippines), the Landing of the Troops Near Santiago (Cuba), the Boys Marching to the Front and the Bombardment of Matanzas (Cuba). The admission ranged from 10 cents to 20 cents. One-fourth of the receipts went to men in Washington County who were in the Army.

    In 1931, the building was remodeled and renamed State Theatre. From that point forward, it showed motion pictures exclusively. The State Theatre is believed to be the oldest movie theatre still in operation.

Local historian Mike Kramme remarked that the fires that consumed multiple opera houses in the late 19th and earlier 20th centuries were a common occurrence virtually everywhere such buildings were built. He said the culprit was the use of open flames to light the theatre. 

?Once you got away from using gas flame, there were far fewer fires,? said Kramme. ?We still have an occasional fire, but nothing like we used to.?

For more, see our Nov. 18 print edition.