Time Machine: Marion’s Garden Theater

It was built in 1914 and rebuilt after 1985 fire

Marion's Garden Theatre, described as the "finest moving picture house in Linn County," as it looked just before opening in 1914. (Gazette archives)

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A lawsuit accompanied the opening of the Garden Theatre in Marion — the “finest moving picture house in Linn County” — in the early 1900s.

It began when Benjamin Umbreit sold his Orpheum Theatre in Marion to B.C. Hall in February 1914, who in turn sold it in March to C.W. and E.C. Davis.

Umbreit immediately began building a new theater a block away in June with carpenter and contractor Arthur H. Kirkwood. He specified the building should be a brick structure, 40-by-120 feet.

The Orpheum’s new owners filed a lawsuit, saying Umbreit had agreed not to operate another theater in Marion for at least five years. The Davises asked for a restraining order and $5,000 in damages. The case was settled out of court in November, with Umbreit paying the Davises $300 and costs.

Construction continued despite the lawsuit, and the new Garden Theatre , 752 10th St., opened just before Christmas, Dec. 21, 1914. It cost $20,000 — around $630,000 in today’s dollars — and had a seating capacity of 925.

Besides showing moving pictures, it also was used for theatrical productions and quickly became a space for community meetings.

Umbreit sold the Garden to Joseph Mulhern of Marengo in January 1917. Mulhern operated it until October 1919, when he sold it to the Adams Theater Co. of Des Moines.

Large crowds filled Marion streets for the first Armstice Day celebration — on Nov. 11, 1919 — and focused on the theater, where World War I veterans were admitted free.

In January 1920, the Garden was in the middle of a lawsuit brought against Umbreit by J.M. Ross, the agent who managed the sale of the theater to Mulhern. Ross wanted a $590 commission for the sale, but Umbreit said the whole thing was a scam. Umbreit lost the lawsuit and was ordered to pay the commission and court costs.

More owners

In March 1921, A.J. Diebold, general manager of the Cedar Rapids Strand and Palace theaters, in partnership with Cedar Rapids businessman Leo Ford, bought the Garden from the Adams Theater Co. of Des Moines. Diebold hired Jack Jacobs to manage the movie house.

The theater closed for a couple of months in April 1932 when H.C. Mershom leased the Garden from Diebold.

Diebold sold the theater, “lock, stock and barrel,” in 1940 to a Des Moines syndicate that owned several small Iowa theaters, and the spelling of “Theatre” became “Theater.”

A $20,000 remodeling began that resulted in the ticket booth being moved to the sidewalk, the office moved to the second floor and the open space converted to a men’s lounge. The women’s lounge was expanded and redecorated. The lobby was renovated and the unused balcony was furnished with 150 seats. New lighting was installed throughout.

X-rated movies

Then came a sea change.

In March 10, 1971, Des Moines-based Bourbon Street Enterprises bought the theater, renamed it the Marion Theater, and started showing X-rated films. Theater owner Richard Davis offered to have kids’ shows on Saturdays, but had no takers.

That venture lasted eight years before Wayne Engle, president of E&S Electric in Cedar Rapids, bought the theater in July 1979 for $120,000, with plans to “make it a family type theater, just as it was years ago.”

He leased the theater to Larry Purvis, and the two men undertook a $100,000 remodel, including replacing the theater’s marquee.

When the Garden Theater reopened with 250 seats in 1980, admission was 99 cents. The policy was popular with patrons, and the theater was doing well until 1985.

The fire

On the evening of Sunday, Feb. 17, 1985, our family of four had gone to a showing of Walt Disney’s 1940 animated film, “Pinocchio.”

Early the next morning, the theater went up in flames. Engle, called out of bed, watched as his theater burned.

“As far as we know, the theater was closed up and everyone gone by 11 p.m.,” Engle told a reporter. “We haven’t been able to get hold of the assistant manager who was on duty, so I don’t even know if the bank deposit was made or it’s still inside there.”

When the fire was out, only the building’s front wall remained standing. Engle announced plans to rebuild the theater incorporating the remaining wall, but high winds the morning of May 31 toppled the wall, scattering stone and bricks across 10th Street.

Rebuilt theater

The new theater built on the site opened as the Garden Theater and Video Centre on Nov. 12, 1985. Mike Peterson was the manager of the new 245-seat facility. Patrons paid $1.50 to see a movie, but they could also shop for videocassette movies and rent or buy machines to play them at home.

Paul Port, the Garden’s manager, emphasized the theater wouldn’t show R-rated movies, “keeping with the family-type policy we’ve set up.”

The Garden abandoned its second-run status in May 1987 to become a “movie classics” theater.

“What we are setting out to do is provide the kind of movies many of us grew up with,” Dan Engle, Wayne’s son and co-owner of the theater, said when announcing the new format. The first movie on the marquee was “Charlotte’s Web.”

That effort lasted just over a year, and the Garden closed July 31, 1988, after the final showing of “Willow.”

The building housed several businesses, including Non Profit Services, Dreasher Photography and Swamp Fox Books, before becoming the Giving Tree Theater, a live theater venue, in 2014.

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