The Crystal Theater

In 1916 William J. Muller opened his first drug store in a little wooden building next door to Gus Urban’s Meat Market. Ten years later, he built a new brick front drug store and the adjoining Crystal Theater. The Robbinsdale Village Council Minutes of 1926 record that Mueller requested sidewalk be laid in front of his new building on the south west corner of 42nd and West Broadway.

 

The little, 350 seat theater didn’t have a snack bar, but a doorway led from the lobby to the candy counter in the adjoining Mueller’s Drug Store.  In 1931, the Crystal Theater underwent a major remodeling and reopened as the Robin Theater.

 

In 1938,  The Crystal Theater was purchased by William and Sidney Volk’s Minnehaha Theatre Corporation .  In the early 1950’s, the Volks closed the Robin and the building became a dry cleaner and laundry for a couple years before it was torn down. The part of the building that was Mueller Drug stood on the corner until 1980, Matching tile and brick work are still visible on an adjacent store front facing West Broadway.