Week 52: Rinear & Montgomery
Some people think the first permanent building constructed in Chandler was the San Marcos Hotel. In reality, it was a brick grocery store that eventually became the town’s first movie theater.
Ezra DeRoss Rinear, a native of Spokane, Washington, “got the Chandler fever” in 1912 after the death of his wife. He arrived in Chandler in October after an arduous 2,000 mile drive. With him were his son, Berton, daughter and son in law, Nora and Logan Montgomery, and their baby. Ezra’s goal was to “make a home and build up a business in the southland of soil, sunshine, water and purple shadows.”
Upon their arrival, Ezra declared “Our expectations have been more than realized. It looks like a fine business opening for the right people in the grocery line and we think we are the right people.” He hired O’Brien and Fraser, contractors from New York, to build a brick grocery building on the corner of Commonwealth Avenue and Colorado Street. The building, constructed of bricks made at the local Chandler Brick Yard, was completed by November 8 of that year. The store, known as Rinear and Sons, featured “staple and fancy groceries and general merchandise.” As an added bonus, they included auto truck delivery.
By January of 1913, the store had electric lights, which made them one of the first businesses in town to be electrified. All of 1913 was a year of constant improvement. In February they installed an ice box with seven compartments and which could hold 300 pounds of ice. They then added an electric steel cut coffee mill so that they could offer freshly ground coffee to their customers. In the spring, they began carrying fresh bread from a bakery in Phoenix. An addition was put on the store as a storage room for flour. Berton Rinear became an active member of the community, playing the piano at various dances in churches, schools, and the not yet completed San Marcos Hotel.
Despite the growth of the store, Rinear and Montgomery sold the business to another grocer, E. E. Morrison, in early February of 1914. Later that month they announced that they would be renovating their former grocery building into Chandler’s first movie theater.
The 230 seat theater, known as the Gem Theater, opened on Saturday, March 28, 1914. General admission was 10 cents or 15 cents, while reserved seats went for 25 cents. The Gem Theater featured “live, moral and clean pictures.” It was their intention to never show any pictures that would offend anyone. The theater ran movies twice a week from Universal Films. The first film was a two reel feature called “Better or Worse,” and they also showed the shorts “A Night in Town,” “Greater Love,” and “An Innocent Bridegroom.”
The movie business was not kind to Rinear and Montgomery. On May 29, 1914, they ran an ad promoting their upcoming shows. Yet in the same paper, a classified ad appears reading “For Sale – Theater fully equipped, with building and lot. Only Theater in town and good chance for one to make good money. Parties going north and must sell at once. Also 15 acres in crop 1 1-2 miles from town. Rinear & Montgomery.” It is unknown what caused them to sell and go north on such short notice. They returned to Spokane but continued to hold land in the Chandler area until 1919.