Best Theatre Building

Duane's take

Here's the tale as the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, every good story needs a beginning, and this one starts right where you'd expect: with a town founder and a contractor and a building going up around 1890. Thomas M.

West, founder of the town, and a local contractor by the name of J.W. Bridges put this place together, and for a good long while, it housed not one but two saloons. Two.

Under the same roof. Make of that what you will. Thomas M.

West knew his town, apparently. Those saloons kept the building busy until 1919, when prohibition came along and changed the whole equation. Couldn't very well keep pouring drinks when the law said otherwise, so the building got converted into a grocery store and a bakery.

From saloons to bread and sugar. That's quite a turn. Then comes 1923, and a man named Jim Tobola steps in, modifies the building, and the Best Theatre opens its doors.

Vaudeville acts, local entertainment, movies, the whole spread. For decades, this place was where you came to see something worth seeing. It ran right up until 1976 before finally going dark.

Now, here's the part I want you to picture as you drive past: this building isn't just any old box on a street. It's got metal semicircular awnings and cast concrete globe-like finials. Whimsical, the marker says, and that word is doing real work here.

A building that started life housing two saloons, became a bakery, and ended up a theatre, dressed up in globes and curves the whole time. Some buildings just know what they are.

What the marker says

Constructed by town founder Thomas M. West and local contractor J.W. Bridges about 1890, this building housed two saloons until prohibition in 1919 promoted its conversion into a grocery store and bakery. Jim Tobola modified the building in 1923 to house the Best Theatre, which offered vaudeville, local entertainment, and movies before closing in 1976. The building's whimsical architecture includes metal semicular awnings and cast concrete globe-like finials. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1994