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Wheaton Theatre

527 State Street – next to Wulff Hardware, which later became The Merc, and then People’s Furniture in 1988.

The Twin Falls Daily News on May 21, 1937 said that a $40,000 fire destroyed the old Wheaton Theatre in Weiser earlier in the day. The Bend Oregon Daily Bulletin said in their coverage that the theatre was worth $75,000. At the time of the fire the theater, built in 1908, was once the premiere center of entertainment but had been closed for many years.

Dorothy Yockey Maxwell said in a 2001 memoir in the Weiser Signal American that W.W. Wheaton built the $80,000 theater, designed with an Egyptian motif, in 1906. It was said to be the finest theater in the state. At the time of the fire, Wulff Hardware, located next door, owned the shuttered Wheaton.

Wheaton Theatre on right side, Hass Hardware on left

Sometimes the present day local Star Theatre has been referred to as the former Wheaton. Linda Morton-Keithley, writing for the project “Movie Industry in Idaho” for the Idaho State Historical Society found out differently. Her research into newspaper accounts shows the Wheaton Theatre and Star Theatre in operation at the same time. Sanborn maps also show both theaters at different locations.

In 1998 Morton- Keithley interviewed Bruce Gordon, the grandson of A.C. Gordon who built the Star Theatre. This interview shed some light on the location. In about 1913 Mr. Gordon’s grandfather bought the Wheaton Theatre and he temporarily renamed it the Star Theatre and then moved the Star Theatre to its present location in about 1917.

Despite the brief name change, the old opera house will be remembered as the Wheaton Theatre. Adding to the confusion is that the local Knights of Pythias Lodge Hall was also once called the Star Theatre.

Today Peoples Furniture occupies part of the old Wheaton location. According to an old photograph in the Signal American, the Wheaton Building would have been across the alley from the present day Ace Auto Parts.

From Cinema Treasures – July 3, 2013

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The old Globe Furniture Co. was instituted in Weiser around 1900 to 1910 by W. A. Barber. It was housed in the building now occupied by the Weiser Signal-American newspaper and was built by the Rev. A. E. Paddock. The business was later moved to the old Wheaton Theater. In 1919, Sam Emerich, just out of the Army following World War I, and a partner, Mason Rosenthal, purchased the enterprise, which was moved to the present location around 1925. (The Wheaton Theater burned in the thirties, and the Merc Store now occupies that location.)

From The Idaho Statesman – Monday, July 28, 1969

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The Wheaton Theatre is listed in the 1914 edition of Julius Cahn’s guide as a second-floor house with 567 seats. The 1906 guide had listed it with 850 seats. All of the available Cahn guides I’ve seen in which the house is listed call it the Wheaton Theatre, never the Wheaton Opera House.

Also, the name Wheaton Theater is on the building just below the cornice. I don’t think the place ever operated as the Wheaton Opera House, though an early drawing from before the house was built has “Opera House” on the building where the photo shows “Theater”.

From Cinema Treasures – July 3, 2013

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Also See W.W. Wheaton
Also See Weiser Area Fires
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