HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
F.L. Maytag's 1927 Hotel Maytag movie palace where a 2012 paranormal investigation ended with an employee pulled backward by the hair
116 1st St N, Newton, IA 50208
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Standard movie ticket pricing; see current listings for showtimes
Access
Wheelchair OK
Downtown theater in historic hotel building; standard indoor access
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1927 · Built by F.L. Maytag as part of Hotel Maytag block · Part of Newton's Maytag-era downtown commercial development · One of Iowa's remaining small-city movie palaces
Newton, Iowa was the manufacturing home of the Maytag Company, founded in 1893 by Frederick Louis Maytag Sr. By the 1920s, the Maytag name had become synonymous with washing machine production, and the family's wealth translated into significant civic investment in Newton's downtown.
F.L. Maytag funded the construction of the Hotel Maytag block, a multi-story downtown development that incorporated hotel rooms, retail space, and a dedicated theater. The Capitol Theatre opened inside this complex in 1927, during the late silent-film era just before the transition to sound. The theater was built to serve both the Newton community and visitors drawn to the city's industrial economy.
The building's design reflected the ambitions of 1920s movie palace architecture, with the hotel complex providing an integrated entertainment and lodging destination rare for a city of Newton's size. The Maytag corporate presence dominated Newton's economy well into the twentieth century; the theater operated within that commercial ecosystem for decades.
In 2012, a former theater manager arranged for the Iowa Paranormal Researchers and Investigators to conduct an overnight investigation of the building. The investigation produced specific documented incidents, including an employee reporting being physically pulled backward by the hair in an otherwise unoccupied area. Investigators also captured photographs and audio recordings described as unexplained. The Newton Daily News reported on the investigation and its findings. The theater continues to operate as an active movie venue.
Sources
The Capitol II Theatre's paranormal reputation in Newton is not rooted in decades of accumulated folk tradition — it crystallized around a single documented event in 2012. A former manager of the theater, experiencing unexplained incidents in the building, arranged for the Iowa Paranormal Researchers and Investigators to conduct a formal overnight investigation in March of that year.
The most specific account from the investigation involves an employee who reported being grabbed from behind and pulled backward by the hair while in an area where no other person was present. This type of physical contact report — tactile rather than visual or auditory — is treated in paranormal documentation as a higher-confidence category precisely because it is harder to attribute to environmental misperception.
Photographic and audio anomalies were also documented during the session, though the specific nature of those captures is described in general terms in the Newton Daily News coverage. The investigation brought the building to wider attention in Jasper County paranormal circles.
The theater occupies a building with layered occupancy history — hotel guests, theater patrons, commercial tenants — spanning nearly a century. The identity of any presence associated with the building has not been attributed to a specific historical individual.
The Capitol II Theatre operates as a working movie theater inside the historic 1927 Hotel Maytag building. The theater was opened by F.L. Maytag as part of his downtown Newton hotel and retail complex and continues to show films.
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