The marquee at 14 Main Avenue North had Tom and Jerry up in mid-October, with a 7:30 show on Friday and 4:00 and 7:30 shows on Saturday and Sunday. The JEM Theatre's website runs under the tagline "Current Movies at Yesteryear's Prices." The building behind that marquee went up in 1940. It is now partway through a sale to a buyer who wants to keep it a theater.
Sunday, November 1, is the last day of Niagara Cave's daily season, and it's also the city's yearly deadline to apply for downtown building renovation help. Once the cave goes to a weekend schedule, Harmony's winter weekend moves into town, onto Main Avenue and the blocks around it. And the theater that would carry much of that indoor season is in the middle of a handoff.
Sunday Is the Hinge
Niagara Cave, at 29842 County Road 30, gives tours seven days a week from May 1 through November 1. After November 1, it's open Saturdays and Sundays in November, plus Fridays November 6, 13 and 27. The operator asks visitors to book through its availability calendar or call 507-886-6606 if a tour looks full.
Harmony's Downtown Revitalization Program works on a calendar of its own. The program guidelines set November 1 as the annual application deadline. A committee then sends its award recommendations to the EDA and City Council by December 1. In the same month the cave cuts back, the city decides which downtown storefronts get help for the next round of repairs.
That's the program the JEM's buyer says she plans to apply to.
What the Sale Looks Like So Far
At the Harmony City Council's October 13 meeting, the EDA board update said the sale of the JEM Theatre to Alicia Pearson "should be closing soon," according to the Fillmore County Journal's meeting coverage. The same report says Pearson plans to keep the JEM running as a theater and will apply to the Downtown Revitalization Program for renovations and improvements. No closing date or price has been made public, so for now the sale is pending.
The idea goes back at least to summer. In a community update in the August 12 council and EDA packet, staff noted they had "Spoke with Alicia Pearson who is looking to buy the Jem Theater, about possible financial programs and incentives available to help renovate" the property.
Here's what the program offers on paper. The city says the council and EDA started it in 2021 to help preserve downtown's character through major exterior renovations and long-term building repairs. The guidelines, last updated in July 2021, make up to $40,000 available each year. An award can cover up to 100% of a project as a forgivable loan, with 10% forgiven each year and the prorated balance due if the building sells. The city's overview handout says no match is required, payment goes to vendors as reimbursement after approval, and the target is visible exterior work like tuckpointing, storefront restoration, brick, windows, doors and trim. Those terms are the city's to define and change, so anyone weighing an application should go to the city and their own advisors, not a blog post. This is general information, not legal or financial advice.
That $40,000 is a citywide yearly figure, not a set-aside for one theater. The JEM would be one application among however many downtown property owners send in by the November 1 deadline.
A Building That Has Changed Hands Before
The theater has passed from one owner to the next for most of a century, and the MNopedia entry on the JEM traces how.
| Year | What happened at the JEM |
|---|---|
| End of 1935 | Opens in the former Orient Theatre at 20 Main Avenue North |
| 1940 | A fire leads to a rebuilt theater next door at 14 Main Avenue North, finished that September |
| 1943 | J. M. Rostvold sells to A. J. Treamann, and the building becomes a bowling alley |
| 1947 | The bowling alley closes |
| 1961 | Bob and Hazel Johnson buy the building and bring it back as a movie theater |
| 1986 to 1999 | Owned in turn by the Sattlers, Dale Wright, the Jacobsons, the Twites, and Roxanne and Bill Johnson |
| 2002 | Paul and Michelle Haugerud buy the theater |
| February 2017 | Dana and Amber Coaty's family takes over |
Counting from the 1961 restoration, that's eight sets of owners, and the theater stayed open through each change. When the Coatys bought it, the Fillmore County Journal described a family-run theater showing first-run movies at affordable prices and offering rentals and events. MNopedia describes it as a single-screen theater. If the sale closes, Pearson takes over a one-screen room that has gone through a fire, four years as a bowling alley, and a long string of small-town owners.
More Than a Movie House
The Harmony Arts Board recently screened the film Centennial Farms of Harmony there, and 114 people came, according to the Journal's October council report. In a town of about a thousand, that's a real share of the community in one room on one night. The August packet had the same screening on the calendar for September.
The same council report shows how much of Harmony's civic life runs through a few downtown rooms. The EDA got a Taylor Rural Improvement Grant to switch the Community Center's lighting to energy-efficient LEDs. The Harmony Area Chamber of Commerce is interviewing for its director job after getting two applications. Fall for Harmony went well despite the rain. Information on the residential lighting contest will be coming in utility bills soon.
The JEM's November and December showings aren't posted yet. The theater's website is where new listings appear.
The Winter Weekend Moves Indoors
With the cave on a reduced schedule, this is how Harmony's calendar runs from Halloween weekend into December:
| Date | Event | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Fri., Oct. 30 | Monster Bash #14, "Meltdown Medical" | 7 to 10 p.m., $20 |
| Sat., Oct. 31 | Monster Bash #14, "Meltdown Medical" | 6 to 10 p.m., $20 |
| Sun., Nov. 1 | Niagara Cave's last daily tour day | November weekends and select Fridays after this |
| Sat., Nov. 28 | Small Business Saturday | Downtown Harmony |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Breakfast with Santa | Pancakes by the Harmony Lions Club, Santa photos |
| Sat., Dec. 5 | Holiday Tree Lighting | 6 p.m., Selvig Park |
| Wed., Dec. 9 | Holidays in Harmony | Late business hours, horse-drawn wagon rides, s'mores and crafts at the Visitor Center |
The haunted house is part of the same downtown-and-arts story. Monster Bash is run by a volunteer 501(c)(3) whose mission is supporting the arts in local communities and in the school district's band, choir, theater and fine arts programs. This year's haunt adds 2,000 square feet. Tickets are sold only at the door, cash or card, and kids under 5 get in free. There are ATMs a couple of blocks away at Kwik Trip and 1st SE Bank. Monster Bash apparel is sold at Bee Balm and at the door.
Bee Balm also has Harmony's newest neighbor. Green Loop Refillery, owned by Sarah and Anette Keiffer, moved from Spring Valley into the retail space at the back of Bee Balm, with its entrance on 1st Street NW, per the August EDA update. Explore Harmony gives the address as 35 1st Street NW, and the Chamber held a ribbon cutting for its grand opening on September 19. Small Business Saturday on November 28 will be its first holiday shopping weekend in town.
The tree lighting on December 5 is a Chamber event. Its member businesses and organizations decorate trees and light them together in Selvig Park for the rest of the season. Holidays in Harmony comes four days later, on a Wednesday, with downtown shops open late. By then the city's revitalization committee will have sent its recommendations to the council, and the JEM sale may have closed.
I'm keeping an eye on the JEM's handoff and the December revitalization awards because both shape the downtown blocks my Harmony neighbors walk every week. If you own a Main Avenue building or a house a few streets over and want to know how downtown changes like these play into its value, John Nelson is glad to sit down for a free market consultation. No pressure, just an honest local read.
