08/30/2026
Out in the far western corner of the U.P., in Ironwood, there is a grand old theatre that has been putting on a show since the Roaring Twenties. 🎭
The Ironwood Theatre opened in 1928, built for a hundred and sixty thousand dollars and designed by a self taught local architect named Albert Nelson in a rich Italian Renaissance style. The very first film to flicker across its screen was the silent classic Wings. When the vaudeville acts came through, a mighty Barton pipe organ nicknamed the Grand Old Lady filled the hall, all 499 pipes of her, and after years of silence she plays again today. 🎶
Movie palaces like this one closed by the hundreds, and this one nearly did too, going dark in 1982. But the town would not let it go. It reopened in 1988 as a community treasure, and the lights are still on. 💡
Out in the far western corner of the U.P., in Ironwood, there is a grand old theatre that has been putting on a show since the Roaring Twenties. 🎭
The Ironwood Theatre opened in 1928, built for a hundred and sixty thousand dollars and designed by a self taught local architect named Albert Nelson in a rich Italian Renaissance style. The very first film to flicker across its screen was the silent classic Wings. When the vaudeville acts came through, a mighty Barton pipe organ nicknamed the Grand Old Lady filled the hall, all 499 pipes of her, and after years of silence she plays again today. 🎶
Movie palaces like this one closed by the hundreds, and this one nearly did too, going dark in 1982. But the town would not let it go. It reopened in 1988 as a community treasure, and the lights are still on. 💡