Ellen Eccles Theatre

2009 Photo from the Ron Pierce collection.

43 S Main St Logan UT 84321

Information for this tour was contributed by Grant Smith.

After the Thatcher Opera House was destroyed by fire in 1912, the Thatcher family decided to build a new theater that could out-do the Capitol Theater in Salt Lake City. The new Capitol Theater in Logan opened in 1923 and was used for movies, concerts, and university events.

The Capitol Theater "had a long gradual entrance from the street because only a small tiny storefront was available for purchase. The visitor then goes to a large foyer before entering the spectacular interior of the theater. It seats 900 on the main floor, 400 in the balcony, and another 150 in the boxes and loges. The elegantly designed woodwork, panels, and walls are spectacular with their elaborate detail. With a large orchestra and organ pit in front, the huge stage alone was nearly half as large as the entire original opera house. The seventy-foot-wide stage is thirty-six feet deep and sixty-five feet high." [1]

In the mid-1970s the owner of the Capitol Theater decided to close the movie house, and it was later traded to a non-profit group called the Capitol Arts Alliance, led by Jonathan Bullen.

After a multi-million dollar restoration, the Capitol Theater reopened in 1993. The theater was renamed the Ellen Eccles Theater, after a prominent early Logan resident and philanthropist.

1. "Chapter 10, A Cultural Survey of the County: Arts, Activites, and Athletics", A History of Cache County, by F. Ross Peterson

August 2009 photos from the Ron Pierce collection.

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• Cinema Treasures
• Utah Theaters

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Last featured 11/25/2009. Last edited 1/12/2011.