Coleman Theatre

What is Coleman Theatre?

The building covers about 120 by 150 feet and combines the theater with commercial space. Outside, the look is Spanish Colonial Revival; inside, the auditorium turns French, dressed in Louis XV style. The original plan set aside ground-floor shops on the east and south sides, next to the theater's entrances, and a Masonic Lodge Hall on the east half of the second floor.

Music lovers will want to see the Mighty Wurlitzer, a pipe organ dating from 1928. The complex also includes the Coleman Ballroom, which now hosts events, plus Celebrity Park, a little plaza with a fountain, benches and a Wall of Fame for local community leaders.

History of Coleman Theatre

George Coleman, whose fortune came from local mining, had the theater built in 1929. The Boller Brothers, a Kansas City architecture firm behind more than 100 Midwestern theaters, drew the plans, and Rucks-Brandt Construction Co. put it up. In its early years the stage hosted vaudeville acts and musical groups as well as movies. The National Register listed it in 1983.

Visiting Coleman Theatre: tips

Plan at least an hour if you take a tour, which is the best way to see the auditorium and the organ up close. There are restrooms on site, and the building is listed as wheelchair accessible with parking. Celebrity Park, part of the complex, is a pleasant spot to sit for a few minutes.

Nearby, the Miami Marathon Oil Company Service Station is about 0.5 mile away and the George L. Coleman Sr. House about a mile. The Mickey Mantle statue in Commerce is about 3.4 miles off.