The History
It wasn’t easy finding out about the building’s history. As it turns out, they did not have the internet back then, or smart phones. So instead of every second of life being recorded by millions of interconnected humans, they actually had to write stuff down. Like, with tools similar to a pen and paper. Remember those things? Anyway, the following is what we were able to dig up so far.
Before the year 1930 it is a little fuzzy what exactly was in the location that now holds the Michigan Theater, which now sits on the lots addressed as 809 and 811 Ludington street. We do know that the city views the structure as being built around 1890, and that around the year 1900 the address 811 Ludington street belonged to a saloon called The Lumberman's Place. It also seems to be widely accepted that between the years 1913 and 1929 the Strand Theater operated from this location. We are not yet sure if the Strand opened before 1913, or what exactly was there before that. A newspaper article from when the Michigan Theater closed stated that the building was “extensively rebuilt” in 1930. Interpret that how you will. After this though, it gets a little bit easier to piece things together.
The building known as the Michigan Theatre, located on main street of Escanaba Michigan, was officially dedicated on Tuesday December second of the year 1930. Formerly the location of the Strand Theatre, the building was rebuilt by Delft Theatres to be a wonder of modern technology. Not only could this futuristic theater project motion pictures in COLOR and with SOUND, but on warm days this building had the ability to draw in clean uncontaminated air from above the rooftops and cool it down before pushing it into the building! The ultimate in cutting edge, state of the art technology!
The Michigan Theater Circa 1937. Photo courtesy of the Delta County Historical Society.
The high tech Michigan Theater would continue to operate under Delft Theatres until Saturday, November 24th 1962. It’s last movie was coincidentally called “Period of Adjustment.” This would leave only the Delft Theater one block down showing movies in Escanaba. What a shame.
Accurate and cross referenceable information gets difficult to find after the Michigan Theater closed. What we believe happened is that Delft Theatres held ownership of it until 1975, when Melcorp Theaters took over until 1985. From here on out it seems that this poor building got rented out for quite a few different reasons, including being a church, a clothing store, and a pigeon motel. We have been told that there were movies shown here in 1988 and 1989, but we cannot find any specifics on who was operating the theater. Despite this, good old memories of watching this movie or that at the Michigan Theater still can be heard from the more experienced generations. Keep your ear out and I am sure you’ll start to hear them.
The Michigan Theater, Circa 2020. Photo courtesy of some random guy.
Fast forward to 2018. A couple of nerds walking down the street one fateful October night noticed a for sale sign hanging on the marquee of this abandoned building. That sign inspired a thought that would set in motion the events that led to this business, and the driving force behind it.
This is all we know about the history of this building as of now, but we will continue to update this section as we learn more! And if any of you have any verifiable information feel free to contact us!