Fuller Drug Company

The stepped brick parapet boasts a concrete nameplate, “Fuller Drug Company,” harkening back to this building’s long service as a drugstore. The sleek, black tile siding on the building’s first story reflects its next incarnation as the Highland Theater. A restaurant and rooming house in 1898, the site became the Kennedy Drug Company in 1899.

From 1906 through the mid-1930s, the building was home to Fuller Drug Company (“Prescriptions a Specialty”). Remodeled by the Washoe Amusement Company, which also owned the fabulous Washoe Theater, the building gained the Art Moderne theater façade with double entrances and a ticket booth (now in-filled) when it became the Highland Theater.

Promoted as “especially for those who are not able to attend evening shows due to working hours,” the Highland offered “the best motion pictures . . . at prices within the reach of all” and distributed free passes to children on Smelterman’s Day. It opened on August 31, 1940, with Bing Crosby’s “Sing You Sinners.

” Shows ran continuously from 1:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m.; admission was ten cents.