Movie house history didn’t begin with the Town. It began in 1908 when two men from Peoria opened the “Orpheum” in what is now the Bacon Building. Two years later they moved a block north to the first building actually built as a movie house. The Masonic Lodge built the two-story building that still exists at 1036 N. Second. The name was changed to the “Majestic.”

   

Five years later, another movie house was opened across the street in the Bennet Brother’s building now known as the Second Street Emporium. It was called “Hippodrome” and installed a full pipe organ for accompaniment. It had a balcony and could seat 350. However, it folded by 1918. Immediately south of the Bennet building was the Dan Kelly Opera House, the only three-story business building other than grain elevators. The opera house was on the third floor.

   

The Opera house burned in December 1922 and the rubble stayed until 1926 when Elmer Sturm cleared it and built his movie house that he called “The Sunset.” It opened in April 1927. Mrs. Warren had purchased the Majestic in 1923 and renamed it the “The Palace.” She sold out to Frank Rolan in 1929. Rolan partnered with Frank Coon and they joined with Sturm to form the “Chillicothe Theater Company,” which operated both theaters until being bought out by the Kerasotes Brothers Company in 1946.

   

In 1949 the Palace was closed and the Sunset was renamed “The Town.” Kerasotes “twinned “The Town” in 1985. Verne Reynolds bought it in 1999 and sold to the Optimist Club in 2009. This and many other great stories can be found at the Historical Society on Sundays 1pm–4pm March thru December.