Theater on Hudson Avenue is to Cost Approximately $150,000

Land 90 Feet by 190 Feet Secured on Which the Second Largest Moving Picture Theater Building in the World is to be Erected – Deal Closed at 5 P. M., Yesterday – Company Started with the Electric Theater in Ogden Six Years Ago With a Capacity of 197 and Now Is a Half-Million Corporation Owning Houses With a Seating Capacity of 9,000 – Chas. Zeimer, Albert Scowcroft and Harry Sims Make Up the Company.

Ogden within six months is to have one of the two largest and finest moving picture theatres in the world.  The structure will be built by the Alhambra Theatre company, which owns the American theatre in Salt Lake City, which is conceded to be the best of its kind and the Ogden playhouse will equal it in every respect.

The new theatre will be built on Hudson avenue, between the Hurst and Colonel Hudson building on the property owned by Fred J. Kiesel.   This decision was reached at 5 o'clock yesterday when Mr. Kiesel purchased a piece of property, adjoining that which he already owned, from the Dee-Eccles estates and Mrs. Sylvia Alvord, this being necessary to give the Alhambra Theatre company the depth and frontage desired for the new building.

The new building, which will be called the “Alhambra,” according to the plans of the company, will have a frontage of 85 feet, 8 inches on the Hudson avenue, and a depth of 190 feet.  It will be a one-story building, 50 feet in height, with an auditorium 45 feet high, and a seating capacity of 2500 on the ground floor.  There will be no balcony and the architectural designs, heating and ventilation system, will be similar to the American theatre in Salt Lake City.  The lobby will be 40 feet in depth and will be a model of elegance.

One of the special features of the equipment of the theatre will be a $10,000 pipe organ, which will be one of the finest that can be secured.

The building will cost approximately $150,000 and will be of brick, steel and concrete, which will make it virtually fire-proof.

The cleaning of the grounds preparatory to erecting the building will begin Monday morning and it is expected that the house will be ready for use within six months.  The only excavating that will be done, with the exception of that for the foundation, will be for a room, in which the heating and ventilating plant will be installed.

When the building is erected, a space of 10 feet in width and 190 feet in depth will be left between the theatre and the Colonel Hudson building to be utilized as an exit and light-well.  Half of this space will be given up for that use by Mr. Kiesel and half by the Alhambra Theatre company.

The Alhambra Theatre company has a history of growth, probably unequaled by any other company of its kind in the world, in the same length of time.   It got its start in the Electric theatre, just east of the Reed hotel on Twenty-fifth street six years ago, under the management of H. A. Sims.  This house had a seating capacity of 197 persons. Its next venture was the Oracle theatre on Washington avenue, and then in succession, the Globe and the Isis on the same avenue.  The company then began to branch out and started moving picture houses in Boise, Pocatello and Twin Falls, Idaho; Logan, Utah, and Rock Springs, Wyo.   Its last move was to enter the moving picture field in Salt Lake City, first buying the Liberty theatre on State street, with its seating capacity of 1100 and then capped the climax by erecting the American theatre on Main street, which is at present the finest moving picture house in the world.  The company now owns houses in Boise, and Pocatello, the two mentioned in Salt Lake City, and three in Ogden, and when the new Alhambra is building in Ogden, the seating capacity of its houses will have grown from its original 197 at the Electric to nearly 9000 and the value of its original property, which was about $1000, to $500,000.  The officers and stockholders of the company are:

Charles Zeimer, president; Albert Scowcroft, vice president; and H. A. Sims, secretary and treasurer.