Stillwater Area Theaters

After a hot morning of riding dirt bikes at the Stillwater 500 riding area, I decided to spend part of the afternoon chasing theaters in the Stillwater area.  I had visited Stillwater a few weeks before, but had since uncovered some more addresses. I was mostly on the hunt for a few smaller theaters, which I knew would not be of much photographic interest, but wanted to photo-document them nonetheless.  I approached from the south, so my first stops were the "Unknown Nickelodeon" and Alamo Theater on South Main.  One was a hospice and the latter was Harrison's Electric.  They were not very interesting...merely brick storefronts and had no remaining semblance of a theater at all.  But, that's what I expected, so I snapped some photos and moved on. Next stop was the Aggie Theater.  On my previous trip, I photographed the building next door thinking that it was the Aggie.  I also snapped some pictures of the building next door because it looked suspiciously like a theater.  Well, it turns out that the building next door was the Aggie.  It has an awning that resembles a theater awning, but is not of the same shape as the original awning.  The building has been broken into two independent retail spaces.  One is occupied by Credit Collections, Inc. and one is vacant.  Across the street on the same block was the Mecca Theater.  This building is now occupied by a business called the Vault and isn't very conspicuous as a former theater building.  Just a plain storefront.

Now on to the disappointments.  If the address is correct (and I imagine it is), the Pastime Theater has been razed and replaced by Stillwater National Bank.  It wasn't razed recently either, as the bank has that out-of-this world 60s styling.  Moving on, I went to look for the Campus Theater.  This was also a disappointment.  I drove up Knoblock looking for the two slightly different addresses...both of which were wrong.  I had heard that Hideaway occupied the former theater, so I redirected my search for the restaurant.  That restaurant ended up being at 230 Knoblock.  However, the building looked nothing like the year 2000 photo I had seen on the internet, so I can only assume (without further research) that the building was demolished and Hideaway built on site.  Oh well. I can now say that I have wrapped up the Stillwater search, as all known theaters have been photographed or marked off the list as demolished.  On towards home with a slight detour to Perkins and Coyle. Perkins is a cute little town that has done an excellent job of preserving its business district.  Though you wouldn't recognize it as a theater, the Lyric Theater building was still present in town.  Since I have yet to run across a period photo of the theater, I was pleased to find that a mural had been painted on the north side of the building depicting Perkins in its glory days.  In the mural was the Lyric Theater. Coyle.  What a depressing town.  Coyle is a ghost town.  First it was abandoned by the railroad and then Highway 33 was realigned away from the town.  Every business in the town was shuttered except for a bank and a couple of others.  There was a theater of unknown name in Coyle supposedly located at 116 S. Main.  Most of the rotting buildings are lacking building numbers, so I could only interpolate the location.  Unfortunately, 116 appeared to be an empty lot in between the rotting closed bank and the rotting mysterious white building. At the last minute I decided to stop into Guthrie and take a few photos there as well.  Guthrie was quite busy, so cruising at a snail's pace down the road was not an option.  I started at the Highland Theater which was located at 102 W Oklahoma.  OKCS Real Estate now inhabits the building.  The Electric Theater appears to have been located on a corner lot at 202 E. Oklahoma.  The building is currently vacant and is located outside of the "touristy" area of town.  The Avon Theater (Brooks Opera House) was demolished as expected, but I did take a photo of the historical marker.  The former lot is now a large parking area.  The lot that hosted an early-day airdome is now occupied by James D. Bennett, Atty. and Osborn Bail Bonds.  The Highland Theater was across the street in a beautiful Victorian inspired building.  Granny Had One, a popular Guthrie restaurant, is in the building now.  And then, of course, was the Pollard.  The Pollard was the only building that resembled a theater as it is still functioning for live acts.  All of the other buildings are completely unidentifiable as former movie houses. Well that concluded a quick afternoon of theater hunting.  I took the nice drive down Highway 33 to OK 74 and headed south to Oklahoma City.