ENTERTAINING AUDIENCES SINCE 1949
The original theater, The Main Street Theater, opened in 1923, was renovated in 1935 and was renamed the Dream Theatre. In 1947, the 590 seat capacity theater was destroyed by fire. The Dream Theatre is an Art Deco style one screen movie theater that opened on Easter Sunday, April 19, 1949 with a 425 seat capacity. The theater was designed by architects Robert Otto Boller and Dietz Lusk, Jr. The Boller Bros. architectural firm based in Kansas City, Missouri designed about 100 theaters throughout the Midwest of the United States during the first half of the 20th century. Twenty of the Boller Bros. theaters are on the National Register of Historic Places. The Dream Theatre is one of nine in Kansas with this designation.
The Dream Theatre was closed by B & B Theatres in 2000. The "Keep the Dream Alive" Committee was formed and paid $6,000 in back taxes and raised $20,000 to reopen the theater. The ten member Board of Directors oversee the day to day operations of the theater with the help of community volunteers that staff the theater Friday through Sunday nights.
