The Braumart Theater opened in Downtown Iron Mountain in April, 1925. The Braumart name is a composite of the theater’s owners: August Brauns and Martin Thomas. Brauns and Thomas were key figures in Dickinson County’s public entertainment market – in addition to The Braumart, they either owned or managed the Bijou (opened 1906) and Colonial Theater (opened 1916) in Downtown Iron Mountain, and eventually the Tri-City Drive-in in Quinnesec (opened 1952). 

The Braumart was designed from the start to show movies, serving the community as a state of the art venue from the silent era through the golden age of Hollywood. Due in part to the advent of Television in the 1950s, a seachange in moviegoing habits led to the eventual closing of the Colonial in 1955, leaving the Braumart as Iron Mountain only cinema for the next 40 years. In 1982, the Theater’s auditorium was divided in half to better cater to general and adult audiences. In April of 1995, the Thomas Theater group opened the 8-screen Tri-City Cinema near the grounds of the former Drive-in, and The Braumart continued to screen new and second-run films for a brief period before officially closing the chapter on its first era in January of 1996.

In the late 1990’s, the Braumart was remodeled into a performing arts facility, and has become a unique destination for live music in the region. A new era for The Braumart began in 2007, when the Friends of the Braumart organized in 2007 as a theater redevelopment organization aimed at breathing new life into the historic space. In 2013, the Milwaukee architectural firm of Engberg Anderson conducted an architectural, engineering and structural analysis that concluded the building was sound, and laid out a plan to reconceive the Braumart as a multi-use performing arts center. On February 11th, 2016, the Friends of the Braumart purchased the historic building, reaching the first major milestone in their goal to purchase and manage the Braumart Theater for the next generation.

Since 2016, the Braumart has played host to a wide variety of national and local musicians, dance and theatrical performances, and classic movies. In this time, it has also become the unofficial home for the creative arts and live entertainment in Dickinson County. As the Braumart looks forward to its 100th birthday in 2025, the theater board of directors have outlined a step by step plan to completely renovate the building in 3 phases. With a new era for this historic downtown treasure  just on the horizon, the time has never been better for you to become a part of The Braumart’s next 100 years.