Est. 1926 · Utah County History · Historic Cinema · Community Theater
The building at 20 South Main Street in Pleasant Grove began its life in 1926 as the New Alhambra Theatre, a neighborhood silent movie house built by Albert Vanwagoner and his brothers. The Millers who later operated it renamed it the Grove Theatre — a name that has persisted through multiple ownership changes.
For most of the 20th century the building served as a discount cinema for Utah County moviegoers. It closed in December 1997, citing what the management described as 'a lack of family-quality movies.' In 1999, Suzanne and Bill Kirby purchased the space, uncovered the original stage during renovation, and opened the Little London Dinner Theatre — professional live performances paired with meals. Sold-out runs and positive reviews nonetheless couldn't sustain the economics of paying professional actors and royalties, and the dinner theatre closed in January 2002.
Subsequent owners Gayliene Omary and Jan Shelton (who also became the subject of the Ghost Charlie accounts in a 2004 KSL news story) renamed it the Grove Theatre. The venue gained regional attention that year when owners declined to produce Neil Simon's 'Rumors' after the playwright refused permission to excise the script's profanity.
The building now operates as the Grove Event Center, a venue with 180 seats used for community events, banquets, and private rentals. The haunting reports date back to at least the 1950s, predating the current ownership by decades.
Sources
- https://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6891
- https://www.ksl.com/article/4668843/ghostly-happenings-reported-at-pleasant-grove-theater
- https://www.utahhauntedhouses.com/real-haunt/grove-theatre.html
Object movementPhantom footstepsPoltergeist activity
The entity nicknamed Charlie by one of the theater's owners is notable partly because the person who gave it the name does not believe in ghosts. The owner described researching the building's history after experiencing the activity herself and finding accounts of similar incidents from as far back as the 1950s — a continuity of unexplained events across multiple unrelated tenants that she found puzzling even while rejecting supernatural explanations.
Three employees were present when a large ceramic mug lifted from a surface, traveled through the air, and shattered against a wall. The owner recalled: 'It scared me to death.' A wooden no-smoking sign removed itself from a window and flew across the room. A storage rack in the kitchen repeatedly tipped over with objects spilling across the floor despite being placed on level ground. The owner has gone onto the stage alone and yelled at whatever is there to stop, at which point — she reports — the activity stops, at least temporarily.
The footsteps on the stage are perhaps the most consistently reported phenomenon: present when she is working alone in the building after hours, specifically on the stage surface, stopping when she addresses them directly.
The name 'Charlie' is used as a practical convenience — a way to refer to whatever is causing the activity without committing to a metaphysical interpretation. The owner has researched the theater's historical occupants without finding a specific individual whose death or attachment to the building would explain the activity.