The Empress, the Strand, and the Shirley: the Wayne Street corner house

Opened March 9, 1913 — demolished 1937

Three names in twenty-four years: At the southwest corner of East Wayne and Clinton streets — 134 East Wayne — stood the shortest-lived of the downtown houses. It opened in the fall of 1912 by one local account, on March 9, 1913 by the Cinema Treasures record, as the Empress Theatre, designed by John M. E. Riedel, one of the town's leading architects of the period; in its early years the Empress presented Sullivan & Considine vaudeville alongside pictures. Remodeled, it reopened on October 9, 1916 — by 1917 in the local summary — as the Strand Theatre, a 1,000-seat moving-picture house, and the Strand Theatre Building at that corner is the name the 1923 city directory knows. The Strand ran pictures until 1927 by the local account, 1929 by Cinema Treasures, then went dark through the early Depression. On April 10, 1936, it reopened under a fourth identity, the Shirley Theatre — named for Shirley Temple, and opening, fittingly, with Fred Astaire in Top Hat and Shirley Temple on the same bill. The Shirley closed in April 1937, and the building was demolished for a parking lot. The corner is today part of the grassy open plaza fronting One Summit Square. W. Clyde Quimby counted the Strand among the houses he owned or leased; it was the slightest of his downtown rooms and the first to vanish entirely.

Sources:

1. Cinema Treasures, Strand Theatre, 134 E. Wayne Street — the Empress opening of March 9, 1913, the October 9, 1916 reopening as the Strand, the picture run to 1929, the April 10, 1936 Shirley Theatre reopening, the April 1937 closing and demolition for a parking lot, the 1,000 seats, architect John M. E. Riedel; the dates are carried in the entry against the local summary where they differ.
2. ACGSI, Allen INGenWeb, S named places — the Empress opened fall 1912 at the southwest corner of East Wayne and South Clinton, renamed the Strand by 1917, a moving-picture theatre as late as 1927, the site now the plaza fronting One Summit Square; Riedel's design and the Sullivan & Considine vaudeville, from Cinema Treasures comments.
3. R. L. Polk & Co., Fort Wayne city directory, 1923 — the Strand Theatre Building, southwest corner of East Wayne and Clinton.