The Dreamland theater opened in a brick building at 6th Avenue and Main Street in Cottage Grove in the spring of 1909. Co-owners Bert Richmond and John Durham showed a combination of moving pictures, illustrated songs, and vaudeville sketches. An item in the local newspaper boasted of a new "Edison picture machine" and fireproof projection room.
Bert Richmond had a previous theater operating under the name "Richmond's electric theater" down the block, which he opened in 1908. The move to the "fine commodious new quarters" seems to have prompted the name change.
The Dreamland lasted only as long as the brief Oregon summer, when N.H. Martin took over ownership and quickly consolidated with the Arcade theater in the Dreamland's storefront space in October 1909, leaving Cottage Grove with only one movie theater.
