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Washington Evening Journal
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Washington, IA 52353
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Lahns keep King Theatre alive
Community embraces restoration of iconic 1930s building
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
BELLE PLAINE — The Mansfield family spared no expense to make King Theatre one of the finest in Eastern Iowa, says a story in the Oct. 16, 1930 issue of the Belle Plaine Union.
With the advent of “talkies,” theaters made improvements to their buildings to get the best acoustics. The Mansfields instructed contractors to overlook nothing that would give the theater the best possible sound.
James Park & Co. used cinder blocks for interior walls and soft plaster and gypsum covering to deaden echoes, and the Mansfields began a run of more than 90 years in the theater business.
“The theater’s been in … continuous operation since 1930,” said the new owner, Zach Lahn. “I purchased it from Steve Mansfield in 2023.”
Lahn showed only one movie in 2023, but that kept the streak alive. King Theater has shown a movie every year since it opened.
Milton Mansfield built the theater, said Lahn. It features one large screen and seats 400 people with the balcony.
The theater has “a really neat stage” that hasn’t been used since the 1940s and 50s, Lahn said. He hasn’t talked to anyone who remembers the stage being used, but Lahn intends to resurrect it. He’s putting in a retractable screen — one of the largest in the state — so the stage and its orchestra pit can be used again.
Lahn was worried about the weight of the large screen, but he’s been assured that the steel beams above the stage will hold the screen, he said.
Lahn will be upgrading the sound system as well.
The west side of the building was formerly the Blackbird Grill and Soda Fountain, said Lahn, and the east side was the concessions area. Lahn will eventually expand into those areas of the building, but for now, he’s got a small lobby and plenty of space in the auditorium.
“When I bought the building, I wanted to put this part in,” said Lahn from behind the concessions counter. It keeps the theater open while he cleans up the rest of the building and makes plans for a museum, an arcade and a concessions area.
Steve Mansfield didn’t clean out the theater. He just handed Lahn the keys, and the new owner took possession not only of the theater, but of all the stuff in it.
“It was filled with things …” said Lahn. He found thousands of flyers, memorabilia dating back to the 1970s, an old microphone system and movie posters going back to the 1930s, back to Howard Hughes’ “Hells Angels.”
“We’re saving every last thing that we can,” Lahn said. People told him he should sell the old movie posters, but Lahn won’t do that.
Lahn restored the theater to its 1930s glory — but added technology needed to run a theater in the 21st century.
The Lahns refurbished the exterior sign and replaced the neon. They cleaned up and restored a couple of coolers — one telling people to drink Coca-Cola and the other offering Pepsi-Cola for 5 cents — and put them outside the auditorium with gumball machines.
Lahn recently replaced the projector at a cost of $45,000. A family in the community helped pay for that. “And that was a huge blessing to us,” Lahn said.
On the upper floor of the theater, in addition to the projector room, are four apartments which Lahn plans to renovate with the help of a Community Development Block Grant. He’s applying for a Community Catalyst Building Remediation grant to put in a soda fountain and move concessions behind the current counter. That will open up the lobby to hold more people, he said.
The Lahn family
Zach Lahn grew up in western Iowa, but his family is from the Belle Plaine area, immigrants from Germany.
Zach’s grandfather, Victor Lahn, graduated from Belle Plaine High School in 1949. He served two years in the U.S. Army during the Korean conflict, then studied aeronautical engineering at the University of Iowa, working as a charter pilot in Cedar Rapids, Fort Madison and Sioux City.
Zach’s great-grandparents, Evelyn and Alfred Lahn, operated a farm north of Belle Plaine.
“I grew up coming here many times a year,” said Zach. He visited the farm, ate in downtown Belle Plaine and spent $10 from his grandmother at the local Ben Franklin store.
When Evelyn passed away in 2005 at the age of 97, the family sold the farm.
When Zach visited his great-grandmother, Neoma Newton, in Blairstown, where Evelyn grew up, he’d would drive past the old farm north of Belle Plaine, and sometimes stop and visit with the people who lived there.
Zach told the owners if they were ever interested in selling, they should let him know.
At that time, Zach was a young entrepreneur working in Ankeny. One day the farmer called. He was ready to sell.
“That began this journey I’ve been on.”
Zach’s father’s cousin, Peter Lahn, had a pallet of boxes of photos that had belonged to Evelyn. Lahn went through box after box. He noted where the windows were. He counted the number of boards on the sides.
Zach wanted to restore the house to what it was when his great-great-grandfather Friedrich Lahn and Friedrich’s uncle, Hans Lahn, built it. He wanted to honor that past.
Zach moved his family to the 1900 farmhouse and spent 2 ½ years restoring it. He and his wife, Annie, live there with their seven children.
Many of the old photos are framed and featured in the farmhouse.
Zach said he’s seen a lot of old buildings torn down, and he couldn’t let that happen to the ancestral home north of Belle Plaine or to King Theatre. “King’s one of the iconic buildings in Belle Plaine,” he said.
“I have a true belief that these small communities are vital to the fabric of our culture [and] what we love as Iowans and Americans.”
About the time the farmhouse was completed, Zach got a call from Steve Mansfield. He was ready to sell King Theatre.
Rebuilding a culture
“I think over the past 20 years, rural America has really taken it on the chin,” said Zach. “There’s a lack of appreciation for what rural America has done to build the culture that we’re in.”
Old theaters hold memories. Main Streets matter. Zach sees himself as “a defender of the culture that built this.”
With the decision to renovate the King, Zach had to learn about theaters. The hardest part is dealing with Hollywood studios, he said. When he leased the first picture, he had to list all his assets and make a lot of promises.
“I had a 30-page contract I had to sign,” even for a small, rural theater.
“Other than that, it’s been great.”
The community has been “unbelievably supportive,” said Zach. King Theatre brings in about 100 people a night each weekend.
King Theatre shows movies every Friday and Saturday night at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. Tickets are $5.
Zach shows new releases, such as “Moana II,” but not always opening weekend. He has to show them for two weeks if he shows them opening weekend.
“We did that with “Wild Robot,” said Zach. It worked out well.
“I think there’s a real desire for kids’ movies,” said Zach. Families want a place that is wholesome where they can take their kids, he said.
The first movie King Theatre showed was “Twisters.” “We had 600 people that weekend,” he said. The theater was full two nights.
“The whole beauty and magic of it is the history,” said Zach. “We love the vintage of this.”
Ashley Wallace manages the theater. She coordinates volunteers and high schoolers who want part-time jobs.
“They’re a part of something big,” said Zach.
The King Theater will show “Moana 2” Dec. 6 and 7 at 7 p.m. “Wicked” will play Dec. 13 and 14 at 7 p.m.
On Dec. 20 and 21, The King Theatre will show “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,” and “Homestead” will come to King Theater Dec. 27 and 28. Showtime is 7 p.m.
