The first notice of the Shell Building on South Main Street, the future home of three early theaters in Lenoir, occurs in the Lenoir Weekly News in 1902 (1/17/1902 p. 3), where it is referred to as the town's new Masonic building. With the Lodge Hall on the second floor, Shell rented out the four lower store rooms to various businesses through the years. In March of 1912, the Triplett brothers moved their Firemen's Theatre from the Harshaw Building into a newly vacated store. The following map is based on contemporary Sanborn maps and other documentation, locating the Shell Building, as well as the Harshaw Building and, for comparison, the court house and the Opera House:

A flurry of activity occupied the local newspapers in 1912:

MATTERS LOCAL AND PERSONAL . . . Messrs. Triplett Brothers, are remodeling the Shell store room recently vacated by Mr. Angley and will open a motion picture show there this week. . . . The Firemen's Theatre will open next Thursday night and on that occasion half of the net proceeds will be given to the Missionary Society of the Methodist church. (Lenoir News 3/26/1912 , p. 3; see also Lenoir News 3/12/1912, p. 3 and Lenoir Topic 3/27/1912, p. 3)

During this period, R.W. Sherrill opened another theater in the Harshaw Building, the Gayety Theatre, briefly giving Lenoir two regular picture shows for the first time in its history. In May of 1912 the name of the Firemen's Theatre was changed to the Casino Theatre and the Triplett brothers apparently felt confident enough in their new business to buy out their competition, purchasing and then closing the Gayety (Lenoir News 6/25/1912, p. 3). This was not the last theater in the Harshaw building, however, as in August of 1912, Sherrill returns, apparently with new equipment, and opens the Red Moon. Finally, in September, the Tripletts sold out to F.C. Carroll:

MATTERS LOCAL AND PERSONAL . . . Mr. F.C. Carroll, of Richmond, Va., has bought the Casino Theatre from Triplett Bros. and is having the entire room remodeled, preparatory to the opening of a high-class vaudeville and motion picture show. The opening performance will be given Wednesday or Thursday night. (Lenoir News 9/17/1912, p. 3)

Carroll immediately renamed the venue the Princess Theatre and set to work remodeling and improving the space . . .

The exact location of the Shell Building and Fireman's/Casino/Princess Theatres on South Main is made evident by comparing contemporary business locations and the 1913 Sanborn map. While this map was made in December of 1913, after the Princess had been relocated to the Jones Building (see below), the vacated theater space is clearly evident. The Shell block has four first floor store rooms, listed on the Sanborn map as "Drugs," "Gro," "Vacant," and "Mens Furg's B. & S." or a drugstore, grocery store, vacant building, and a store for men's furnishings, boots and shoes. The second floor is listed as lodge rooms. 

The drugstore was originally owned by Shell himself, but sold in 1913 (Lenoir Topic 10/29/1913, p. 3). The grocery store arrived about the same time, just before the Sanborn map was made, run by R.M. Tuttle (Lenoir Topic 10/8/1913, p. 3). The Thompson-Lyerly Shoe store was listed as being next door to the Princess in June 1913, well before the theater had moved up the street:

SPECIAL SALE / ON ALL STRAW HATS . . . Thompson-Lyerly Shoe Co. / On South Main St. / Next Door to Princess Theatre (Lenoir News 6/13/1913, p. 2)

Thus the storeroom listed as vacant on the 1913 Sanborn map had been the Princess Theatre in the Shell Building. F.C. Carroll ran the Princess Theatre at this location from September 1912 until September 1913, when he moved 5 stores northward to the new Jones Building.

The role that the original Triplett theater had in helping the town purchase equipment for the fire department (thus the name, Firemen's Theatre), was still remembered years later:

Wall Reviews History Of Fire Department In City . . . By L. HERBERT WALL / Mayor of City of Lenoir

. . . Movie Saves Day . . . It may be of interest to recite the fact that some of the operating expenses of the fire company were met by the privilege tax levied on a picture show by Lenoir and by an arrangement worked out between the late M.C. Triplett, brother of Commissioner G.B. Triplett, whereby the fire company received 5 per cent of the proceeds of the ticket sales. The town of Lenoir did not appropriate very much funds for the work of the fire department until in recent years. It should be kept in mind that the firemen not only gave of their service, but many of them gave money besides to help equip and maintain the department. (Lenoir News Topic 9/17/1931, pp. 1, 8)

The building itself was still there in 1950 when the final Sanborn map was made, but was apparently torn down at some later point. Today, the lot where the Shell Building used to be has reverted to nature: nature of the kudzu kind.

Dr. Gary R. Boye

Music Librarian and Professor

Appalachian State University

boyegr@appstate.edu