Astoria #17: Stokes Building

1218 Commercial Street

This building was originally built around 1925. The new Astoria Theatre opened in 1925 behind this building, at the corner of 12th Street & Marine Drive. A sign was installed on the corner of this building advertising the theatre to traffic on Commercial Street. Photographs of this sign have led many to mistakenly believe that the theatre was located here, myself included, until I was set straight by a reader. The actual theatre building has been demolished.

The Astoria Theatre replaced an earlier theatre by the same name at 12th & Exchange Streets that was destroyed in the 1922 fire. A young Clark Gable acted in the original theatre. The new Astoria Theatre opened in 1925. In 1933, the Astoria Theatre was purchased by the Fox Theater Company, which also owned the Liberty Theater. The Astoria Theatre was renamed the Viking Theatre and its Wurlitzer organ was moved to the Liberty Theatre, where it remained until 1954. After leaving the state for a couple of years, the Wurlitzer returned to Astoria in 1958 and was reinstalled in the Viking Theater (which later became the Viking Roller Rink) and combined with another Wurlitzer from Indiana, but in 1960 a larger Wurlitzer was acquired from New York, and the original Wurlitzer was sold in 1961. The Viking was sold after a final May 17, 1964 concert and was eventually demolished. The site is now the parking lot for the Wells Fargo Bank the occupies the Stokes Building.

Thanks to reader Mitch Mitchum for the information about the theater.

Related Link:
Astoria Theatre at Puget Sound Theatre Organ Society

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