Opened: Perhaps sometime in 1907. It's listed as the Metropolitan Theatre in the 1908 and 1909 city directories. F.P. Parker was listed as the proprietor in the 1909 directory. It was on the north side of the street, the second building west of the corner of 5th and Wall St. That's a long block east of Los Angeles St.
Status: It didn't make it into the 1910 city directory. The building it was in has been remodeled but survives as retail space. The city gives a 1904 construction date for it.
"Theatre Metropol." appears in the center of this detail from the 1909 map by Birdseye View Publishing Co. That's Wall St. to the right (east) of the theatre and Winston St. behind it. The map, in the Library of Congress collection, used art by Francis Lawrence and was "compiled" by
Birdseye staffer Worthington Gates. It was first issued in October 1909.
A detail from a later printing of the Birdseye map that's also on the Library of Congress website, again carrying a 1909 copyright but incorporating some 1910 revisions. That C.C. Chapman building we see to the right of the Metropolitan didn't begin construction until spring 1909.
That rollup door with the "For Lease" sign appears to be the former location of the Metropolitan Theatre. Wall St. is off to the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
The other Metropolitans: Interestingly, this 257 E. 5th address pops up again in the 1915 city directory under "motion picture theatres" as the Metropolitan, an error. In the alphabetical section that same year they give the address of the Metropolitan as 513 N. Main.
The Metropolitan name had evidently moved to N. Main in 1911. The theatre there is listed under that name (sometimes at 513, sometimes as 515) in the 1911 through 1921 city directories. It was later called the Estella Theatre.
The big Metropolitan, later renamed the Paramount, opened in 1923 at 6th and Hill.
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