The Majestic Theatre: the Berry Street playhouse

Opened October 24, 1904 — demolished 1957

The city's turn-of-the-century playhouse: The Majestic Theatre at 216 East Berry Street opened on October 24, 1904, to an excited public, in the years when live theatre was still the nation's main dramatic entertainment. An 800-seat house, it was Fort Wayne's standing playhouse for the first third of the century — the room where the city's permanent stage companies took root. On August 21, 1933, the Old Fort Players leased the Majestic and remained there seven years; in 1940 the company took the name Fort Wayne Civic Theatre and stayed at the Majestic until 1957, mounting 231 productions there by the company's own history. The Majestic's end and the Civic's next home were the same event: in 1957 the company moved to the Palace on East Washington Boulevard, and the Majestic — in the Civic history's phrase, the splendid old theatre — was torn down that year. Its site at 216 East Berry is a parking lot at Citizens Square. The theatre companies themselves are the Arts section's record; the Majestic's is the first of Fort Wayne's purpose-built playhouses to rise and the first of the major houses to fall.

Sources:

1. ACGSI, Allen INGenWeb, M named places — the Majestic at 216 East Berry Street, opened October 24, 1904, razed 1957, from Cinema Treasures and local discussion; the Old Fort Players' lease of August 21, 1933 and the Civic Theatre's tenure to 1957.
2. Fort Wayne Civic Theatre, "A Brief Historic Overview" (fwcivic.org), as quoted in Cinema Treasures discussion — the company's line (Community Theatre Guild 1927, Old Fort Players 1931, Civic Theatre 1940), the Majestic years, the 231 productions, and the 1957 move to the Palace; the company's own chronology is carried in Arts.