The Airdome Theatres of La Crosse

In the early 1900s, promoters began building outdoor theatres in downtown areas known as air domes. Air domes (also called aerdomes) were simply theatres “under the dome of the starry sky.” They worked well because the evening air was much more pleasant than stuffy indoor facilities and there was no concern of noise from traffic. These outdoor theatres were inexpensive to construct featuring a fence or wall across the front to control access, an open seating area, and covered stage.

One of the first air domes in La Crosse was a temporary live performance venue. The La Crosse Chieftain, July 21, 1910 reported that “Crawford & Beach of the Airdome theatre, have been playing to good business in La Crosse this week. They have some very clever people in their company, and their performances have been quite satsifactory. The specialties are good. The show will continue all week at their stand near the school house.”

Airdome Four years later, Richards brothers introduced La Crosse residents to open air movies. On May 7, 1914, the La Crosse Chieftain announced that Clarence Richards was building an airdome theatre in La Crosse. The theatre, located on the west side of Main Street in the middle of the 800 block opened for business on Monday, June 8, 1914 with a free show. The La Crosse Republican reported “They had some fine pictures and those present speak well of it.”

Airdome_1915b In early July 1915, the Richards Brothers, sold the Airdome to the Opera House Company in order to devote more time to their recently opened indoor theatre, the Princess. The Opera House Company continued to operate the Airdome on the Main Street site until moving it east of the opera house in late March 1916. They operated the aerdome for a short period of time eventually closing it to concentrate on showing indoor moving pictures along with their live performances.

The Airdome, like many theatres of the time, featured serials over a period of several weeks to keep patrons coming back. “The Black Box” advertised to the right, consisted of 15 reels shown over a period of 15 weeks.
 
left: La Crosse Republican, June 3, 1915