The New Century

By the turn of the century, a jewelry store and a restaurant occupied the east room and a dry goods dealer was on the west. The Sons of America reclaimed their third-floor meeting hall, only to be replaced in 1903 by the Military Tract Bindery, later to be known as the Forman Co.

In 1909, one of Monmouth's first silent movie houses, the LeGrande Theatre, opened in the lower east room. An advertisement in the Monmouth Review noted that there were "good pictures and songs every night" and a "double show Tuesdays and Fridays." Mrs. Matheson played the piano, Lee Sharp played the drums and Miss Palmer was the singer. Admission was 5 cents. The following year, Mrs. William Osborne purchased the business and renamed the theater "The Arrow."

In August of 1910, Robert Patton died at the age of 73 following a long illness. The Patton Block was purchased by his nephew, Dr. Adelma G. Patton, a successful physician who had rented office space in the building since the early 1890s. Shortly thereafter, the Monmouth Gas and Electric Co. moved its office to the east room and The Shoe Market began a successful 20-year stint in the west room. The Eagles Club took over the third-floor meeting rooms and remained there until 1918 when the entire building was purchased by Monmouth Lodge 577 of the Odd Fellows. Another Odd Fellows lodge, Warren 160, owned the Claycomb Block, the three-story brick building to the east. When the two lodges merged in 1927, the Odd Fellows owned virtually the entire block between the courthouse and Main Street.

In the 1930s, the movies came back to the Patton Block. While the Odd Fellows still owned the building, they were now meeting in the Claycomb Block next door, opening up the third floor for a movie theater, known as The Ada. Soon, the theater moved to the west room on the first floor, where it became known as "The Little House with the Big Pictures." The Ada finally closed its doors in 1938 when the modern Rivoli Theatre opened on Main Street.

Back 07.25.2006.