Cotton Theatre

The Cotton Theatre, also known as Regent Theatre and Oster Regent Theatre, is a theater located at the corner of 1st Street and Main Street in downtown Cedar Falls, Iowa, United States. It was named for local Cedar Falls resident Frank Cotton who built the theater in 1909 and 1910.

Cotton Theater
Front of the theater
Cotton Theatre is located in Iowa
Cotton Theatre
Cotton Theatre is located in the United States
Cotton Theatre
Location103 Main St.
Cedar Falls, Iowa
Coordinates42°32′14″N 92°26′42″W
AreaLess than 1 acre (0.40 ha)
Built1910
ArchitectAlban and Fisher
Architectural styleRenaissance
Part ofCedar Falls Downtown Historic District (ID100001673)
NRHP reference No.93000764[1]
Added to NRHPJuly 23, 1993

In its 1993 nomination to the National Register of Historic Places it was deemed "one of the best examples of commercial architecture on Cedar Falls' main street" and was then the only existing theatre there. It is in Italian Renaissance style.[2]: 9 

History

The opening night of the Cotton Theatre was Thursday, June 23, 1910. On that night, The Rejuvenation of Aunt Mary, chosen from the May Robson Company, was shown. The original theater had seating for 1,000 patrons.

In 1918, the name was changed to Regent Theatre. In 1991 the Blair family along with the Beck Trust gave the theater to the Cedar Falls Community Theatre. In 1994, it was restored at a price of $1.2 million and was given the new name Oster Regent Theatre. The theater is still widely used today and seats 500 people.

The theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1993.[1] In 2017 it was included as a contributing property in the Cedar Falls Downtown Historic District.[3]

References
  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. July 9, 2010.
  2. Barbara Beving Long (April 1, 1993). "National Register of Historic Places Registration:". National Park Service. Retrieved July 13, 2016. with nine photos
  3. Mike Anderson (May 13, 2015). "Cedar Falls downtown historic district identified". The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier. Waterloo-Cedar Falls. Retrieved 2017-11-13.

Further reading
  • Silka, Wayne E. A History of the Cotton Theatre in Cedar Falls, Iowa, from 1910-1918. University of Northern Iowa, 1973.
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