The Colonial Theater
Idaho Falls, Bonneville County
- Grants: two in 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Location: 498 A Street, Idaho Falls, ID 83402
When it opened in November 10, 1919 the Colonial Theater was billed as the “biggest and finest theater in Idaho,” with 1400 seats in a town of only 8000. Built for vaudeville, at a cost of $150,000, its stage was the largest in Idaho. The theater featured mahogany opera chairs and eight dressing rooms. When West Coast Theaters bought the building in 1932, it became a movie house and was renamed the Paramount. Live productions continued as late as the 1950s, but movies became the mainstay. It shut is doors in 1989. The owner Dick Clayton, Sr. and his son Steve Clayton donated the theater and adjacent Carousel building to the Idaho Falls Arts Council. The community of Idaho Falls as raised over $4 million to restore and renovate the theater into a local performing arts center and southeastern Idaho’s first public visual arts gallery.
