Whatever Happened to Kirksville’s Princess Theatre?

The Princess Theatre did not disappear when the movies stopped.

The building at 202 S. Franklin St. survived as its purpose changed repeatedly.

That survival is what makes the Princess story more interesting than a simple theater obituary.

When was the Princess built?

Local sources use several dates.

Truman's Princess Theatre archival collection describes the building as designed and built in 1914 by Kirksville architect Irwin Dunbar.

The City's cultural-resource survey uses 1915.

The official Dunbar tour emphasizes 1916, and theater-history sources place the public opening in February 1916.

The safest interpretation is that the Princess was a mid-1910s project whose design, construction and opening occurred across more than one documented date.

It began as a downtown theater

The Kennedy family opened and operated the Princess.

The building included theater architecture associated with Dunbar, including decorative interior work and a prominent street-facing entrance treatment.

For roughly a decade, it was one of Kirksville's important entertainment venues.

The Kennedy Theatre changed the Princess's role

When the larger Kennedy Theatre opened in 1926, it became Kirksville's first-run venue.

The Princess shifted toward second-run movies.

The Princess did not instantly fail when a newer theater appeared. It moved down the exhibition hierarchy and continued operating for decades.

The Princess closed as a theater in 1957

Truman archival records give 1957 as the year movie exhibition ended.

The triangular marquee was removed in 1962 after it was considered a pedestrian hazard.

Other alterations gradually changed the original Dunbar appearance.

The building then sat vacant for a long period.

Retail replaced film exhibition

After roughly 16 years vacant, Fred Hulse purchased the building and converted it into Tina's Fabrics.

Herb Sieren bought it in 1977 and opened Sieren's Palace, a women's clothing store.

Truman's archival history notes that by the Sieren period, the theater interior remained the area retaining the strongest original appearance.

The building nearly became parking

In 1987, the City petitioned for demolition of the Princess property for parking.

A preservation effort followed.

Patricia Severns, then at Northeast Missouri State University, produced a master's thesis documenting the theater's history as part of that effort.

The building survived.

Princess Emporium

Daryl Shafer purchased the building in 2011 and remodeled it for use as Princess Emporium, an antique-market and retail space.

In 2017, Shafer recovered a bas-relief that had once been located near the theater ticket window.

Current 2026 Kirksville Chamber material still lists Princess Emporium as a downtown Art Walk host, supporting continued active reuse of the building.

The building was also added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2026.

How much of the original theater survives?

Historical tour material describes elements such as:

• twin towers;
• canopy;
• decorative electrical fixtures;
• artistic plasterwork;
• arched ceiling;
• tiled entry.

Some features were altered or removed through decades of reuse.

Do not assume the current building is a perfectly preserved 1916 theater.

Its significance lies partly in the fact that it survived alteration at all.

The complete arc

The Princess story looks like this:

theater → second-run cinema → closure → fabric store → clothing store → demolition threat → preservation → antique/retail reuse

For Dunbar's broader Kirksville work, see Who Built Downtown Kirksville? The Architecture of Irwin Dunbar.

The Princess did not remain unchanged.

It did something more difficult.

It remained.