The Heights Theater fell into disrepair in the late 1990s. Now it's turning 100.

Before the movie starts at the Heights Theater in Columbia Heights, red curtains open and an organist plays for about half an hour. It's one of the touches that have made the north metro theater a favorite as it turns 100.

"It's like being transported to another time," one moviegoer said.

The Heights opened in 1926 and has shown movies continuously for a century, according to the theater's website. According to the former owner, it is the oldest continuously operated theater still open in the Twin Cities. People came from "all over the metro area" when they owned it, they said.

The theater can show films in both 35 mm and 70 mm, projected from Norelco AA2 projectors, according to its website. That is one of the big draws, a former owner said.

"It's a little jewel box," one person said. "It definitely has stood the test of time."

For one moviegoer, keeping that experience going matters most in the age of streaming.

"It means a lot," they said, "to be able to keep that classic moviegoing experience alive."

The theater had fallen into some disrepair as a discount theater in the late 1990s, according to its website. Tom Letness bought it in 1998, restored it and installed the Wurlitzer organ. The theater's centennial series, with one film from each decade of its existence, was scheduled for Oct. 1 to 8.

The Heights' Wurlitzer organ dates to 1929, when it was used for live radio programming from WCCO's downtown Minneapolis studios. That story said the owners of Chicago's Music Box Theatre would take over the Heights starting in 2026.