Next up on our list of men on the First Christian Church building committee is “H BLAND.”
Now you might be thinking “Wait… shouldn’t we have another picture of the First Christian Church building then?”
Don’t worry, there will be more of those. But Mr. Bland’s name is Howard Bland, and he was responsible for the construction of the original Howard Theater in Taylor in 1924.
But… the building pictured here isn’t the original Howard Theater, though the sign is the sign that graced the original.
You see, the original theater was across the street. This building was the Rita Theater, which opened in 1940 and showed B-run movies. In 1959, the sign was moved to the Rita, which was refurbished, and the original Howard closed.
The Howard is still open for business, though it doesn’t appear to be owned by members of the Bland family these days.
More about the old and new Howard theaters:
http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/4240