194.1099.5

Looking west down Main Street from the Duff Avenue corner in about 1913 after the street had been paved (1910). Automobiles, not horse-drawn buggies, now line the streets. The tracks of the street car can be seen in the middle of the paved street. Globed street lights are also seen on both sides of the street. The right side of the photograph shows the two Ames movie houses, the Princess and--separated by the Pure Food Store-- the Twin Star (Ames's first movie house, opened in 1907 as the Scenic Theater). Farwell Brown remembers the Twin Star as the place where westerns and "B" silent movies were shown to the accompaniment of an electric piano and the Princess as the theater where more serious films were viewed. Until December, 1919, movies were confined to downtown Ames because they were felt by both town and college officials to be detrimental to the morals of Iowa State College students. For a full discussion of movie theaters in Ames, see pp. 78-84 in "Ames, the Early Years in Word and Picture," by Farwell T. Brown, 1993. (See also: 194.1100.1-2)