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Overview

This was the second theatre operating in Seattle called the "Alaska Theatre." A previous venue with the same name sited at 514 2nd Avenue had been open c. 1910. When the second Alaska Theatre opened on 05/12/1914, Seattle Times theatre critic J. Willis Sayre, called it "...one of the most beautiful photoplayhouses in Western America, and [was] still another proof of the advanced stand that the motion picture has taken in the amusement life of the country." (See J. Willis Sayre, "The Alaska Theatre Opens Its Doors," Seattle Times, 05/13/1914, p. 12.) The Alaska operated on 2nd Avenue, between Seneca and Spring Streets, in an area already filled with theatres. During the 1910s and 1920s, theatre buildings became a favorite investment vehicle for large and small investors, due to the burgeoning popularity of movie-going.

Building History

The Alaska Theatre #2 replaced a two-floor brick commercial building that had stood on the site. An article in the Seattle Daily Times on 01/25/1914 said of the new movie venue: "A wrecking crew bright and early the morning of February 1 will begin tearing dow the two-story brick building on the east side of Second Avenue between the Baillargeon Block and the Germania, to make way for the new Alaska Theater. This building, to be devoted to photoplay, is planned on line that will make it the most ornate structure of its kind on the Pacific Coast. It is to cost approximately $100,000 and many special features which will make it distinctive among such structures will be introduced. The men most heavily interested in the enterprise are well-known Alaskans, Louis Begelius, W.H. Marston and John Beaton, represented locally by Henry Broderick, Incorporated. Construction is to be pushed rapidly as rental at this particular location is high and every day’s loss of use of the property is of consequence. Plans for the building provide for two stores facing Second Avenue but outside of these the entire structure will be used for the theatre.” (See “Store Building To Be Demolished,” Seattle Daily Times, 01/25/1914, p. 38.)

IL-born architect Warren H. Milner (1865-1949) designed the $100,000 Alaska Theatre with his Victoria, BC-based associate, John Wilson. They collaborated with S.G. Coombs, the building contractor, the heating, ventilation and plumbing engineers, H.W. Beck and Company, the interior designers Theodore Cooper and L. Gluck, and the Frederick and Nelson Department Store, suppliers of the carpets, draperies and upholsteries.

The Alaska Theatre #2 was short-lived, as the R.W. Polk and Company's Seattle City Directory, 1918, listed the theatre operating at 1114 2nd Avenue as the "Strand." Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Frank Lynch wrote of the Strand: "The Strand Theater began as 'The Alaskan.' It was opened under the new name in 1921 as a 'long run' movie house. The Strand had a 16-piece orchestra. A good one. The theater did right well until sound was added to film. By that time, the district was established several blocks north, and The Strand owners just closed the doors." The Strand later became a burlesque venue in about 1930, but only for a short time. (See Frank Lynch, "Seattle Scene: Exit Laughting from the Burning Theater," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 12/26/1957, p. S13.)

Building Notes

In 1914, buildings located nearby to the Alaska Theatre on 2nd Avenue (near Madison Street) included the Rathskeller Restaurant, Pantages Theatre and the Hotel Savoy. The Lois Theatre which had closed (due to a fire) by the time the Alaska had opened in 05/1914, stood just to the north of the latter.

Demolition

The Alaska / Strand Theatre has been demolished.

PCAD id: 14903