The Greatest Theatre in Routt County
by AwA
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of Art with Altitude.
ON APRIL 15, 1915, the doors to the Princess Theatre on Main Street opened to a crowd that filled the house. The theatre was hailed as a “credit to a town many times the size of Oak Creek,” in an Oak Creek Times article written that same year. The big, three-clustered electric lights shined down on the main floor of the theatre, which held 350 people comfortably with a balcony accommodating an additional 75-100 persons. “The floor, which is constructed of maple, was carefully laid,” so when the theatre was not in use for motion pictures, it could be used for dancing. The space included a 24-by-16-foot stage, equipped with curtains, side wings, flies, props and footlights. A number of dressing rooms were built under the stage.
Guests looking around would have seen a ceiling covered with pressed steel and four-foot-high walls of wainscot finished with heavy burlap up to the ceiling. Outside hung a huge electric sign.
“The Princess Theatre will stand as a monument of the great faith that its owners Townsend & Jones have in the future of Oak Creek. The playhouse is unquestionably one of the finest of its kind to be found in the state and is a source of pride to every loyal citizen of the town. Nearly $2,000 has already been expended on the structure and it will take close to $4,000 to entirely complete it,” reported the Oak Creek Times.
Once opened, the space became a community gathering center that hosted the Hard Times Dance, Oak Creek Minstrel Company, lectures, basketball games, Leap Year dances, Dances given by the Oddfellows Lodge, a Grand Ball given by the Chamber of Commerce and a heavyweight wrestling match. In September 1916, the Princess Theatre hosted the opening of the Democratic campaign with an address by the Hon. Edward T. Taylor of Glenwood, congressman from the fourth congressional district. Films of the time included Charlie Chaplin reels.
A little over a year later, a gallery was installed for young children with an admission of five cents. The goal was to take most of the boys out of the lower floor and “enable the management to keep better order.” Around that time, $2,000 was spent to install a Wurlitzer orchestra piano designed to duplicate the music of a nine-piece orchestra and keep time for dance.
The Princess Theatre changed hands a few times before the Oak Creek School District purchased it in 1919, opening a library in the front room.
Elevate the Arts: Visit the exhibit on the Princess Theatre and Rio Theatre at the Tracks & Trails Museum in Oak Creek. AwA
