PARK RAPIDS, Minn. — September 7, 2026 (Minnesota Nice News)
I took Jodi out on a date a couple weeks back, a Thursday night in August, and we drove over to Park Rapids to see the new Spider-Man at the Park Theater, the 1939 movie house on Main Avenue South.
Nothing fancy. We dressed casual. But it turned out to be one of the better nights out we’ve had in a while, and I want to tell you about it.
The Park sits at 107 Main Ave. S. in downtown Park Rapids, Minnesota, the Hubbard County seat, about 4,100 people, right where the prairie gives out and the pine woods start. The town was founded in 1882 and grew up as a supply depot; farmers, loggers, trappers, timber cruisers and the local Ojibwe community all trading through the same few blocks.
First thing you notice about downtown Park Rapids is that people still park right down the middle of Main Street. Head-in parking, two rows, cars nose to nose in the center of the road. You don’t see that many places anymore.
Turns out there’s a reason for it. The street was laid out unusually wide on purpose, back in the logging days, to accommodate the long horse-drawn teams the town ran on. The horses are gone. The street stayed. A hundred and forty years later everybody’s still parking in the space the freight teams needed.
The whole looks like somebody hit pause around 1962 and forgot to hit play again. Then there’s the marquee. Big red neon, “PARK” running straight up the side of it, showtimes spelled out in black letters the way God intended: DOG STARS 620, SPIDER-MAN IV 640, END OF OAK STREET 700.
We went to the 6:40.
The box seats
The Park has a private viewing room upstairs, they call them box seats and it runs $34 a person. That’s not just the room. Each person gets their ticket, a box of candy, a medium popcorn, and a medium soda. The room holds up to five and has its own sound system. Regular admission at the Park is $11 for an adult, so you do the math and tell me that’s not a deal.
The box has a rail in front of you to set your popcorn on, red seats behind it, and nobody in your lap. Jodi got settled in with her popcorn and I don’t think she stopped smiling all night.
A question I haven’t been able to shake. What was that room for, originally? A little enclosed space up above the house, looking down through glass at the screen. So I asked. The theater told Minnesota Nice News they aren’t sure either, some people have speculated it was balcony seating, but nobody knows for certain. Eighty-seven years of Friday nights and the answer just quietly went out the door with whoever knew it.
So consider this an open call. If you or your folks or your grand folks remember what that space up there used to be, get ahold of us. I’d like to put the answer in print.
The movie intro
Before the movie started, a fella came out in front of the screen and did a little introduction for the upcoming movie. Live. In person. Talked to the crowd, welcomed everybody, then let the picture roll. It was like something out of 1950. I’ve been going to movies my whole life and I don’t remember the last time anybody bothered.
One more thing worth noting: the concession stand was pushing Bero, the non-alcoholic beer brand Tom Holland started, right there under a Spider-Man promo while Tom Holland was up on the screen. Small-town theater, global marketing tie-in, same counter as the Milk Duds.
The crowd was a good mix. A bunch of high schoolers buried under blankets, half of them scrolling their phones, but they showed up, which counts for something. And then some older folks, our age, who looked like they’ve been following Spider-Man since the man first showed up in a comic book. Everybody in the same room, same screen, same popcorn smell.
Jodi liked the movie. I liked the movie. But honestly the building and historic experience was half the show.
Eighty-seven years old and still standing
I did a little digging afterward. The Park was built in 1939 by brothers A.W. and E.J. Baehr, who put up a string of movie houses around this part of the country, and the Park is one of the few still running. It opened as a single screen with around 550 seats and a stage for live performances, right at the tail end of the Art Deco era. A wall went down the middle in 1992 to make it two screens, a third screen was added in 2011, and the theater changed hands in 2022, when Tim and Rachel Oberg bought it from Scott and Pam Wilson. Pam’s family had run the place since her dad bought it back in 1983. Their slogan is “a big screen in a small town since 1939,” and that about covers it.
The Obergs didn’t come up through the theater business. From what i gathered, Tim worked at Warner Brothers out west, in Burbank, California, and he’s described it since as a dream job; the Hollywood machine, where you’re one small part of something huge. They left California in 2015. His dad grew up in Minnetonka, and his retired parents had been spending half the year up in this part of Minnesota, which is how word got to them that the Park might be for sale. They moved to Park Rapids from Massachusetts in 2022.
Their stated hope is to keep remodeling, write grants, and “peel back the layers” to find the Art Deco bones the building had in the late ’30s. They’ve also been expanding. Over Memorial Day weekend they opened The Lamphouse in the storefront next door, the old Tony’s Barbershop, a cinema lounge and merch shop with movie posters, T-shirts, VHS tapes and DVDs, film books, snacks and mocktails, and a seating area for a movie discussion club. That’s the Lamphouse sign you see next to the box office.
The renovation
There’s a restoration underway and they’re raising money for it. There was a shelf of donated books in the lobby when we walked in, sold to help fund the work; the kind of small-town fundraising that actually adds up a few dollars at a time.
The list of what they’re raising for is right there on their website: replacing a computer server that failed, adding bathrooms off the lobby, funding the ongoing restoration, and paying for the free Christmas matinees they put on for the community.
On the bathrooms specifically, the theater told us there’s no timeline yet. They’re working on a grant that would help cover the cost, and they’re still taking donations to close the gap between what that grant can fund and what the quotes to complete necessary work. The restrooms are downstairs, and they are pure 1950s Getting bathrooms up on the lobby level is going to be great.
If you want to help, there’s a donate button on parktheater.mn.
What’s coming up
Two things the Park passed along that are worth putting on your calendar, and both are free.
The first Knit-Flicks night is Sept. 19, showing You’ve Got Mail; bring your knitting, watch a movie. Tickets are free, and they say more Knit-Flicks nights are coming. Jodi is going to love this.
Then the North-by-North Pole Film Festival starts Nov. 28 and runs Dec. 5, 12, 19 and 26. Tickets to that are free as well, and they’re accepting donations to help put the community event on.
One last thing worth knowing, because I didn’t until I went looking. You can rent the place. The Park takes bookings on its screening rooms for private events birthdays, reunions, class parties, a business showing something to its people, whatever you’ve got. You fill out a rental inquiry form and somebody from the crew gets back to you. If you’ve been hunting for a venue in this part of the state, there’s an Art Deco movie house sitting on Main Avenue waiting on your call.
Eighty-seven years. Two world wars’ worth of Friday nights. The neon is still lit and there’s still a kid selling popcorn behind the counter. If you’re anywhere near Park Rapids, go. Take somebody you like. Spring for the box seat and if you know what that room up there used to be, tell us.
Writing By: Gregory Moyer | Editing by Jodi Moyer
EDITOR’S NOTE:
SOURCES:
Park Theater, Park Rapids — texted responses to Minnesota Nice News, Sept. 7, 2026.
Park Theater donation and information page, parktheater.mn/donate —
https://parktheater.mn/donate/
City of Park Rapids historical marker, via the Historical Marker Database —
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=278668
Prairie Public Shorts, “Park Theater, Park Rapids, MN,” 2024 —
https://www.pbs.org/video/park-theater-park-rapids-mn-iakfrq/
Park Rapids Enterprise, “Park Theatre’s ongoing story changes reels,” September 2022 —
https://www.parkrapidsenterprise.com/business/park-theatres-ongoing-story-changes-reels
Park Theater official site —
https://parktheater.mn/
Support Independent Journalism
At Minnesota Nice News, we cover the good stuff; the people, places and small victories that make lakes country worth living in. We’re independently owned and here for you. Reader support is what keeps it that way. If you’d like to help us keep telling these stories, consider making a one-time donation today. Every contribution makes a difference.
Got news, events, birthdays, or a story worth telling?
Send it through Reach the Newsroom
Just good news from the Chippewa National Forest and the lakes country around it.
© 2026 Minnesota Nice News LLC |
2026 — Minnesota Nice News LLC | minnesotanicenews.com is dedicated to sharing the stories, photos and experiences of the people who live in and love northern Minnesota. Content on this site includes original reporting by Minnesota Nice News as well as contributions from community members and links to outside sources. Views expressed in user-generated content are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of Minnesota Nice News. We rely on contributors to stand behind the accuracy of what they submit.
