The Fort Armstrong

Circa '21 is housed in the historic Fort Armstrong Theatre which opened on January 19, 1921 at the height of the silent movie era. Opening night featured the film “Midsummer Madness” by William DeMille, a ten piece orchestra, as well as other musical and comedic presentations. Lila Lee, co-star of “Midsummer Madness” even appeared in person. Much excitement was generated when congratulatory telegrams arrived from Paramount Pictures President Adolf Zukor, Cecil B. DeMille, and comedian Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle.

The theatre originally contained a 1,566 seat auditorium, a dance salon, a photography studio, Hickey Brothers Cigar Store and Soda Fountain, a nursery, and attractive green rooms for the actors.

A fine example of these detailed areas is the great warrior Blackhawk's countenance overlooking the stage from the proscenium, the detailed carvings on the exterior and bright colors.

The theater, designed by architect Benjamin Horn of the Cervin & Horn practice, is a three story Art Deco style building faced with Indian red brick and polychrome terra cotta. The terra cotta was designed specifically for the theater by Rudolph Sandberg and produced by the Midland Terra Cotta Company of Chicago.

The major focal points of the Fort Armstrong Theatre exterior are the 3rd Avenue facade with its curved northeast corner, the tympanum-like areas above each window and the themed terra cotta designs. The terra cotta decorations include vintage Illinois thematic symbols such as spears and arrows, birds, snakes, corn and more. The main color of the terra cotta frame is ivory, with yellow, bright blue, green and brick red being used for details.

By 1929 the theatre announced it would move away from silent films and start showing the new “Talkies” or talking pictures. Walter Rosenfield and Joseph Hopp were the two men who invested their time and money in the theatre stating that they had faith, not only in the film industry, but also in the area that eventually was to become the Quad Cities. The $500,000 cost of the theatre's construction was said to represent one dollar for every brick used in the exterior structure, an enormous sum in its day.

The Fort Armstrong remained a movie theatre for the next 55 years, with each successive operator adding individual touches to modernize the building. Yet, over the years as the film industry became more competitive, the older, more grandiose movie houses, burdened with high overhead expenses and skyrocketing utilities, soon were unable to keep up with the sleek new mall theatres. Slumps in ticket sales pushed the theatre even closer to closing its doors forever.

In August of 1976, the theatre was purchased by Denny Hitchcock and after extensive remodeling, Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse opened in June of 1977 as the newest Quad Cities' professional theatre. The interior was remodeled into Las Vegas-styled seating and currently seats 334 on the main floor. In 1978, following the opening of Circa '21, the Fort Armstrong Theatre was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The concept of dinner theatre was unique to the Quad Cities at the time and has since provided the area with over 250 productions of comedies, dramas, musicals, mysteries, children's shows and celebrity attractions such as Tony Bennett, Mickey Rooney, Phyllis Diller, Pat Boone, The Smothers Brothers, The Lettermen, Dennis Miller, and Roseanne. We are also one of two dinner theatres in the country with a performing wait staff, The Bootleggers.

In 2001, the historic theatre underwent a $225,000 renovation in conjunction with the start of its 25th Anniversary Season. The renovations included repainting the entire interior of the theatre; renovation of the restrooms; recarpeting the entire theatre; and a new marquee, which is a replica of the original from 1920.