When the theatre opened in , it was one of many so-called Egyptian Theatres across the United States. Of those Egyptian theatres, the DeKalb theatre is one of a handful still standing as of 2019. In the original design, additional buildings were supposed to be attached to the existing building, but they were never built due to the stock market crash in late 1929. For instance, there was to be a hotel attached to the north side of the building. In its earliest days, the theatre specialized in silent films and live vaudevillian performances.