Toledo History Main Street (A) - Toledo, OR - Oregon Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Main Street Toledo History sign at the site of the old Ross Theater.
Text of the Sign:

The Ross Theater was built in 1926 in the “Egyptian Style” popular at the time. It replaced an earlier theater, “The Dime,” a silent movie theater owned by James Ross. The Ross family operated The Die with daughter, Verne, playing the piano to accompany the films. Verne bought out her brothers and sisters and operated the theater for ten years, and then commissioned the new theater here. The Ross Theater was very popular with the community in the days before television. Several of the scenes from the film “Sometimes a Great Notion” were filmed in front of the Ross on Main Street Toledo in 1970. In one scene, Paul Newman’s character “Hank Stamper” sawed a desk in half in one of the street front offices of the Ross Building. The building fell into disrepair in the 1980s and was donated to the City. The City demolished the building in 1991, as it was seen as too far gone to rehabilitate. Residents with memories of many happy days spent at the old theater were sad to see it go. The adacent deck was constructed as a public space as part of the Main Street Revitalization Project of 2001, when the City installed all new sidewalks, street surfaces, trees and streetlights.
Many of the street scene photographs that capture some of the buildings of Main Street was taken during the “Pioneer Days” parade. Pioneer Days was a city-wide and regional celebration that began in Toledo in 1952 and continued until the event was renamed “Toledo Summer Festival” in the 1970s. The original event was just as popular as today’s Toledo Sumer Festiva, as area residents enjoyed the parade, a “barge tussle,” free bean feed, and dancing. In this photo we see behind the parade float a variety store in the building to the left up Main Street. This building was built in 1910 as a roller skating rink, and then housed several different variety stores and Mel’s Ice Cream. Mel’s was a favorite gathering spot for locals, situated across from City Hall and near the Ross Theater. Owner Marge Hamerness was always open after the movies, games and school. It was “the” place to be for town teenagers.

Historic Topic: Modern Age 1900 to date Group Responsible for placement: City Government Marker Type: City Region: Coast County: Lincoln State of Oregon Historical Marker "Beaver Board": Not listed Web link to additional information: Not listed

Visit Instructions:

Include your thoughts and observations pertaining to this location and your visit. Provide any additional history that you are aware of that pertains to this location. If the marker commemorates a historic building tell us what it is used for now or share with us the circumstances of an earlier visit to bring this locations history to life.

Please upload a favorite photograph you took of the waymark. Although visiting this waymark in person is the only thing required of you to receive credit for your visit, taking the time to add this information is greatly appreciated.

Be creative.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   09/23/2017 Volcanoguy visited it