A 1901 Guthrie building that started as a furniture store and funeral parlor before George Pollard turned it into a vaudeville house in 1919 — now a working live-performance venue where an irate gentleman's face appears in the lobby mirror.
1214 Division St, Guthrie, OK 73044
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticket prices vary by production; see website for current schedule and pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Ground-floor main theater access; historic building with some interior steps.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1901 · 1901 commercial building operating as furniture store and funeral parlor · Converted to vaudeville house by George Pollard in 1919 · Continuously operating performance space for over a century · Part of Guthrie's National Historic Landmark downtown district
The building that houses the Pollard Theatre at 1214 Division Street in Guthrie, Oklahoma, was erected in 1901 as the home of Patterson Furniture. Like many commercial establishments of the era in Oklahoma's territorial capital, the furniture store doubled as a mortuary — a common arrangement when embalming equipment and large display rooms served both trades. The Pollard Theatre's official history, published on its website, confirms both functions.
In 1919 George Pollard acquired the building and converted it to a vaudeville house, at a time when Guthrie was transitioning from its role as a territorial capital to a smaller regional city following Oklahoma City's assumption of state capital status in 1910. Vaudeville was at its commercial peak in that period, and the Pollard hosted traveling acts alongside local performers for several decades.
Cinema Treasures, which maintains records of American theater buildings, documents the Pollard's address, operational timeline, and current status. The theater today operates as a nonprofit organization presenting live stage productions ranging from musicals to dramatic works. It is one of the few buildings in Guthrie that has functioned as a performance space continuously since the vaudeville era.
The building sits within Guthrie's National Historic Landmark district. Its layered history — furniture store, funeral parlor, vaudeville house, live theater — across more than 120 years makes it one of the more consequentially occupied structures in the downtown streetscape.
Sources
The central paranormal account at the Pollard Theatre involves a large mirror in the lobby where witnesses have reported seeing the face of an older man with an expression of visible displeasure. Local tradition holds that this is the apparition of a former vaudeville cast member — possibly one who performed at the theater when George Pollard was running variety shows there — objecting either to the change in programming or to some perceived slight. The Haunted Hex blog, which documented a visit to the Pollard in September 2024, includes accounts from people who described seeing the face in the mirror without having been told the story in advance.
A secondary layer of the lore draws on the building's decades as a funeral parlor. Some staff and paranormal investigators have described a general unease in the basement and in storage areas that were associated with mortuary preparation, though specific apparition claims in those spaces are less consistently documented than the mirror account.
The Pollard's active status as a working theater adds an unusual dimension to its haunted reputation: the accounts here come not primarily from paranormal investigation events but from theater staff, performers, and audience members who encounter the building in ordinary operational circumstances. Whether the 'irate gentleman' is attributed to vaudeville grievance or funeral-parlor residue, the accounts have persisted through multiple decades of ownership and programming.
Notable Entities
Attend a production at the Pollard, one of Oklahoma's oldest continually operating theater spaces. The 1901 building's history as a furniture store, funeral parlor, and vaudeville house gives its lobby and backstage areas an atmospheric weight that surviving cast and crew members have noted.
The Pollard's lobby — including the large mirror where the apparition of an older gentleman is reportedly seen — is occasionally accessible outside performance hours. The Cinema Treasures entry documents the building's architectural and operational history.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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