1930-1980 J.C. Penney Building:

Silent films were shown periodically until the 1920s when the auditorium was renamed the Crystal Theater, after also being called the Princess Theater for a while. Movies shown there included stars such as Joan Crawford and Laurel and Hardy.  The theater finally closed because of competition from the new, air-conditioned movie house, the Watseka Theatre, two blocks east, which opened in 1935.

The original deal between Braden Brothers and the J. C. Penney Co., was signed in late 1928.  The fifteen-year lease called for an advanced rental at the end of each five years.  For the first five years, the rental was to be $233.33 per month.  The second five years it was $258.33 per month, and the third five years, $288.33 per month, or a total rental for the fifteen years of $46,499.40.

The Braden Brothers were to make improvements to the building at a cost of $10,000.  These improvements involved forming one large room out of the two stores previously located on the ground floor, replacing the old front of the building with a new one, and raising the north thirty feet of the ceiling four feet to allow the installation of a gallery.  New floors were also to be installed along with several minor improvements, “making the finished quarters into an up-to-date, modern store.”  (Watseka Republican, Nov. 14, 1928) 

J. C. Penney took possession on or before June 1, 1929.  The upstairs of the building was retained by Braden Brothers. The final public service provided by the building was in 1938, when services for St. Edmund’s Catholic Church were held there, after their church building was destroyed by fire and until their new building was completed.

By the early 1950s, Penneys was dissatisfied with the balcony originally provided for them and desired to have it enlarged, both in area and in height.  The September 1953 lease included an agreement by owner Edward Braden to make certain alterations.

Probably in the late spring or early summer of 1954, workmen closed the opera house, removing the double-width stairs leading from the Third Street entrance and bricked up the side street entranceway and all the opera house windows overlooking Third Street, except for a single window nearest to Walnut Street. Inside, the space formerly occupied by the stairway was added to the Penney store area and the ceiling over the retail store balcony was raised about 3 feet into the former opera house space. The opera house gallery at the north end of the hall was torn out as well as the stage with its proscenium arch at the south end.

By the early 1980s one could gain access to the former area of the opera house, by courtesy of the J. C. Penney Company, through a narrow stairway on Walnut Street, which originally served the building west of the opera house.  At the top of the stairs a door had been cut through the Braden building wall into the former hall.

J. C. Penney closed their store in February of 1990.