HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena — as catalogued
+ 1 further entry on record
A 1929 Route 66 vaudeville palace built by mining magnate George Coleman over a former funeral home, where staff and ghost-tour guests report a mischievous child spirit and Coleman's own lingering presence.
103 N Main St, Miami, OK 74354
Research updated August 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Walkthrough visits are offered daily as available at no set charge; ticketed shows and full guided tours vary in price. Call ahead to confirm availability.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor lobby and orchestra level; historic Route 66 storefront building.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1929 · Built in 1929 by mining magnate George L. Coleman Sr. on historic Route 66 · Designed by the Boller Brothers with a Spanish Colonial Revival exterior and Louis XV interior · Houses a 1928 Wurlitzer pipe organ built specifically for the theater · Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1983); donated to the City of Miami in 1989
George L. Coleman Sr. made his fortune in Miami, Oklahoma's lead and zinc mining industry, and in 1929 he built the Coleman Theatre on the town's Main Street, along what would become U.S. Route 66. Built in 330 days by the Rucks-Brandt Construction Company to a design by the Boller Brothers at a cost of roughly $600,000, the theater opened April 18, 1929, with a sold-out house of 1,600 patrons paying a dollar a ticket for a vaudeville bill and the film The Dummy.
The building pairs a Spanish Colonial Revival exterior with an elaborate Louis XV-style interior, and it was built with a Mighty Wurlitzer pipe organ, custom-built for the venue in 1928 at a cost of $35,000 and still housed there today — one of the few Wurlitzers of its era still in the theater it was originally built for. Over the following decades the Coleman hosted touring vaudeville and film, drawing performers including Will Rogers, Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, the Three Stooges, Sally Rand, and Tom Mix, who reportedly rode his horse Tony across the stage.
The Coleman family donated the theater to the City of Miami in 1989, and volunteers logged more than 10,000 hours restoring the building, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (1983). It remains an active performance venue and event space, offering guided and self-guided tours alongside its ongoing arts programming.
The building's footprint also once included the Miller Fribley Funeral Home next door, a detail that figures prominently in the theater's present-day reputation for unexplained activity.
Sources
The Coleman Theatre's haunted reputation is tied largely to the building's former neighbor, the Miller Fribley Funeral Home, which operated next door and is said to have used part of the theater's basement — now cited as the source of the building's mortuary-adjacent lore. Guests on the theater's occasional seasonal ghost tours describe being invited into a darkened room to interact with a spirit local guides describe as a playful child; one visitor account from 2023 describes a board crashing to the floor when a guide called out to the entity.
Staff and volunteers have also reported sightings they attribute to George L. Coleman Sr. himself, describing an older man's figure seen wandering the building's public spaces, and some ghost-tour guides tell an unverified story involving a young couple and a fatal dispute inside the theater — a piece of folklore with no documented historical event behind it, and one Hauntbound treats as legend rather than fact. Visitors have also reported figures in period dress appearing briefly in the balcony before vanishing when approached, along with the scent of cologne or pipe tobacco in areas of the building with no obvious source.
Ghost tours at the Coleman are not on a fixed public schedule; they are arranged periodically for special events or by paranormal-interest groups, distinct from the theater's regular historic walkthroughs and guided tours.
Notable Entities
A guided walkthrough of the Spanish Colonial Revival theater built by mining magnate George Coleman in 1929, including the Louis XV-style auditorium and the 1928 Wurlitzer pipe organ built specifically for the venue. Call ahead to confirm availability, since tours are limited during production periods.
Self-guided walkthrough visits are offered as available during regular hours, without a scheduled tour guide.
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Pawhuska, OK
The building at 110 W Main opened in the 1880s as the Pawhuska House hotel. C.C. Constantine remodeled it into a Greek Revival opera house, which held an informal opening in 1914 and an official grand opening that December with the Broadway musical The Prince of Pilsen. It later ran as the Kihekah movie theater until closing in 1974, then was restored by a citizens' group and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986.
Guthrie, OK
The Pollard Theatre building at 1214 Division Street was constructed in 1901 as Patterson Furniture, which also operated a funeral parlor on the premises. George Pollard purchased the property in 1919 and converted it to a vaudeville house; it now operates as a nonprofit live-performance theater. The venue's own website confirms the 1901 construction date, the furniture and funeral origins, and the 1919 vaudeville conversion.
Joliet, IL
The Rialto Square Theatre opened May 24, 1926, designed by Chicago firm Rapp & Rapp for the six Rubens brothers. Its Neo-Baroque interior — modeled in part on the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles — earned it a place on the American Institute of Architects's '150 Great Places in Illinois' and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places.