In New York, its Broadway. In Chicago, The Loop. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue. Lanesboro has a theater district, too. It is smaller, for sure, but boasts two beloved theaters with a combined history that stretches back more than a century.


The St. Mane, built in 1890, was originally a furniture store. It became the Elite Theater in the early 1900s showing silent movies. Later called the State it offered modern films. Generously donated to the community by the St. Mane family, today as part of Lanesboro Arts it hosts concerts, theater, dance and more. The Commonweal Theater was founded in 1989. (Listen to its Talking Trail story next door).


All that history is celebrated in this beautiful mural courtesy of Lanesboro Arts and the Commonweal who commissioned St. Paul artist Erik Pearson to create it. With the hands-on assistance of more than 200 local volunteer-painters, it was installed in 2023.


The mural tells a story. Two actors (far left) are on stage; six (to the right) are the audience; two more (far right) are in a balcony. On stage the fairy (top left), in a cornsilk-patterned dress honoring local agriculture, is from “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” the Commonweal’s first play. The building’s window is a “ghost light,” always lit when a theatre is dark. A musician reminds us the St. Mane Theatre hosts a variety of musical performers.


The man with the broom is Robert Greer, Lanesboro’s first mayor, with a Lanesboro Arts card in his hatband. An early Lanesboro switchboard operator has phone lines plugging into a guitar on stage. Town folk are here, too: a farmer; a man; a young woman; a child. Look for other fun details: marquee lights; the Commonweal logo on a program; a Lanesboro Community Theater/Over the Back Fence ticket stub in a shirt pocket; Cecil Ward, silent film pianist at the Elite. Behind her, a writer, essential to scripts and music; a History Alive Lanesboro! button on a woman's hat; and a typed piece of paper celebrating Lanesboro’s 150th birthday in 2019.