LASR.net Homepage




Menu


Newton, Kansas

The Newton Fox Theatre was built in 1914 and once showcased vaudeville acts. It had a full pit for an orchestra and coal shoots for heating furnaces in the basement. It was known as the Royal Theater until 1921, when it was renamed the Regent and revamped for staging vaudeville acts. In the 1920s it started showing silent films and in the 1930s the theater was fitted with its first sound system.

When 21st Century Fox bought the theater in 1955, workers tore into the stage, putting up a large canvas screen and cutting away at the arch above. After that, not much changed inside the building up to its final show in 1999. Behind the screen there are still upstairs dressing rooms for actors and a pulley system for stage scenery. A huge second-floor loft might have been a ballroom that still has antique stenciling on the ceiling.

The theater's 440 seats are new, and the paint on the walls is just a few years old, but the place retains a lot of its 1950s character and today hosts speakers and conventions, and stages plays and musicals.

Attractions and Upcoming Events

Kauffman Museum

The Kauffman Museum is located on the Bethel College campus in North Newton. The museum emphasizes the cultural and natural history of the Central Plains and the immigration of the Mennonites to Kansas in the 1870

Newton, KS Museums

Camp Hawk

The 43 acre park contains a 4 acre pond stocked with channel catfish, crappie, largemouth bass and sunfish. Park facilities include an enclosed shelter house (available by reservation) which contains a kitchenette, restrooms, fireplace and a large meeting room for 100

Newton, KS Recreation

Newton Station

The Newton Station, completed in 1930, was built during the Depression for 350,000. Modeled after Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon, the Newton Station was home to a Harvey House between 1930 and 1955

Newton, KS Historic Buildings

Carriage Factory Gallery & Park

In 1883-1884, one of Newton's largest industries was established, J.J. Krehbiel's Carriage Factory. Mr. Krehbiel was one of the founders of Bethel College. In 1993

Newton, KS Arts

Bethel College

North Newton is home of Bethel College. Built in 1888, the striking Bethel College Administration building made of Kansas limestone in the Romanesque Revival style attracted the community's attention from the very beginning.

Newton, KS Colleges

Things to do near Newton, KS

Municipal Auditorium

The Memorial Auditorium downtown is an impressive memorial to the veterans of World War I. The Harlem Globetrotters have play...

Veteran's Memorial Park

Veteran's Memorail Park is 74 acres of recreation with a fishing lake, ball fields, tennis and basketball courts, a sand voll...

Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway

The Gypsum Hills Scenic Byway begins at the junction of Hwys. 281 & 160 and runs 40 miles to the west to Coldwater, at the ju...