Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Is Closing After 100+ Years

A historic downtown Fort Worth theater and movie house announced that it will be closing its doors for good.

Downtown Cowtown at the Isis, located just a few blocks west of the Fort Worth Stockyards in downtown Fort Worth, posted a parting message to its followers on Facebook Sunday.

"Thank you to all of our patrons and visitors for your undying support at this incredible and unique vision we call Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theatre," the message reads. "It is with the deepest sadness that we announce, effective immediately, we personally will no longer be operating the theatre."

The downtown Fort Worth theater has been screening movies and hosting live shows on North Main Street off and on since 1914, according to the venue's website.

We attempted to reach the owners and a representative of the theater, but our messages were not returned by press time.

The 400-seat theater opened as the Isis Theatre on May 21, 1914, in a building designed by architect Louis B. Weinman. The one-screen theater's building, which also housed a pharmacy and 12 rooms on its second story, screened silent films and Western serials. Houston preacher Joel Osteen often cites the Isis Theatre as the place where his father John Osteen "sold popcorn" as a young man in several of his books. The original building was destroyed in 1935 by a fire that started in the projection booth.

W. Scott Dunne, the architect who designed movie theaters across Texas and Oklahoma, including the Texas Theatre in Oak Cliff, rebuilt the theater in 1936 and dubbed it the "New" Isis theater. Dunne's design expanded the theater's capacity to 1,000 seats. The grand opening on March 27, 1936, featured an appearance by film and dance star Ginger Rogers just a few years before she won the Oscar for Best Actress for the 1940 film Kitty Foyle.

Tragedy struck the theater once again six years later when the Marine Creek flood that destroyed the Fort Worth Stockyards caused severe damage to the New Isis. The theater underwent extensive repairs and changed owners several times over the next 50 years before closing its doors in 1988. The New Isis theater became one of the many forgotten cinematic relics that sat unoccupied in downtown Fort Worth for almost three decades, falling into extreme disrepair.

In 2017, Dr. Jeffrey Smith and his wife Debbie Garrett-Smith purchased the vacant building and began renovating the space into a working movie and live theater venue again. They reopened the Downtown Cowtown at the Isis Theater in the summer of 2021. The theater screened classic films and hosted live musical performances in the last year by country singers such as Scotty Alexander, Gary Kyle and Curtis Grimes and the country pop trio The Heels. The Isis Theater also offered live theatrical performances and stage shows including the Reduced Shakespeare Company, comedian Eddie Ifft and An Evening With Barry Corbin, starring the TV and film actor from WarGames and Northern Exposure.

"Although this chapter is coming to an end, the memories and stories we all have created here will last a lifetime," the theater's statement reads. "It has been honor [sic] to serve and entertain the historic Fort Worth area for the past two years and we are all so incredibly grateful."