Before the Alameda Theatre was built, the site held the home of John Odom and Mary Kirk Ross. Ross was a leading merchant and citizen in Albemarle during and after the Civil War. The Alameda Theatre building, first owned by M.F. Little, was originally managed by A.B. Thompson and later for many years by Eben Hearne. Built in 1916, it became Albemarle's first modern movie theatre, and its construction marked the end of stage productions and movies at the Opera House in the Starnes-Parker building on West Main Street.