Major Alterations and Additions

The southern half of the Roxy Theatre site was originally occupied by Rosenbaum Hall. This early Brigham City landmark served as an assembly hall, school, and religious meeting place quite early in Brigham City's history. (It appears on the earliest Sanborn Map, produced in 1884.) In 1897, the hall was purchased by the Fishburn family, who by 1890 had apparently reinforced the original adobe structure with stone. They operated the building as a dry goods store.

 

In 1904, the Fishburns undertook a major remodeling of their store. They built a one-story brick addition onto the north side of the old two-story hall, filling in the space between the hall and the Compton building, which had been built in 1900. They also made a two-story brick addition on the south side of the old Hall, which served as a fruit packing plant. Although it appears that the original Rosenbaum building was also substantially rebuilt in brick at this time, evidence (in the form of an affidavit) still exists that at least part of the wall and foundation of the old Rosenbaum Hall was left intact, and that it still stands at the time of this writing (November 1980). The 1907 Sanborn map indicates that the Fishburn buildings in all had 70 feet of frontage on Main Street and were uniformly about 80 feet deep.

 

The next major alteration in the structure appears to have been made about 1930. Apparently, the roof on the Rosenbaum Hall portion of the structure was raised to make one continuous second-story roof over all of what is now the Roxy Theatre. The building was also extended about 25 feet farther westward (see sketch). It continued operation as the Fishburn store only for about a year after this, for in 1931, it was purchased with the intention of converting it into a movie theatre. Due to lack of funds for remodeling, it was again sold in 1932. These new owners completed the theatre conversion, bricking in the buildings' windows and removing the wall between the old assembly hall and the northern addition. The New Grand Theatre opened on Christmas day 1932, showing Marlene Deitrich in "Blonde Venus".

 

In 1936, the theatre underwent a change of management. The new operators brought the "Roxy" marquee down from Logan and renamed the theatre accordingly. Another major remodeling took place in 1949. Most of the Art Deco facade was added at this time. Little appears to have changed since then.

 

The southern portion of the Fishburn operation, which was never a part of the theatre, eventually became a bank. This building was extended westward about ten feet to accommodate a new vault in about the early 1950's. More recently, it has been a stereo equipment store. Like the theatre, it is scheduled for demolition in December 1980. However, due to considerable alteration of this building in recent years, it has already lost much of the historical significance still attached to the Roxy Theatre, and is, therefore, not described in detail.