The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 248 A portrait of Frederick Mercy appears in this publication. FREDERICK MERCY. Frederick Mercy, engaged in the theatrical business in Yakima, was born in Newark, New Jersey, May 7, 1877, a son of Frederick and Sarah F. (Randolph) Mercy. The father was a hat manufacturer. Both he and his wife are now deceased. Frederick Mercy after acquiring a public school education started in the hat factory of his father and learned the trade, thoroughly acquainting himself with every feature of the business. As the years passed he developed extensive interests of that character, opening a chain of eight hat stores in New York city, where he profitably conducted his interests until 1908, when he sold out and crossed the continent to San Francisco. He there opened a moving picture house and later established a vaudeville theatre. He continued in that city for three years and then came to Yakima in June, 1912. Here he purchased the Majestic Theater, which then had a seating capacity of two hundred and fifty, but now seats eight hundred. He remodeled and enlarged the theater, making it the second best moving picture house in Washington, and he still successfully conducts it, presenting the finest productions of filmland there. In 1915 he leased the Empire Theater, with a seating capacity of eleven hundred, and now conducts it as a moving picture and vaudeville house. In March, 1918, he built the Liberty Theater, with a seating capacity of nine hundred, and completed it at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. He has a lot adjoining and expects to enlarge his theater before the end of the present year so that it will have a seating capacity of sixteen hundred, constituting it one of the largest theaters in Washington. It will present vaudeville attractions and also legitimate drama. Mr. Mercy conducts a large bill posting business in addition to his theatrical business and is meeting with substantial success in his undertakings. His theaters are well ventilated and sanitary in every regard and every attention has been paid to the comfort of patrons as well as to the production of first-class attractions. On the 12th of June, 1901, Mr. Mercy was married to Miss Theresa Stein, of Newark, New Jersey, and they have three children: Frederick, Jr., sixteen years of age; Edgar, two and a half years; and Paul, who is but a year old. Mr. Mercy belongs to the Masonic fraternity, having membership in Munn Lodge No. 190, F. & A. M., of New York city, where he also attained the thirty-second degree of the Scottish Rite. He is a member of Afifi Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Tacoma. He is also a life member of Elks Lodge No. 318, of Yakima and has membership relations with the Knights of Pythias at Yakima and with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He belongs as well to the Commercial Club, the Business Men's Association, the Country Club and the Washington Theater Association and is widely known and popular in these various organizations. His political endorsement is usually given to the democratic party, yet he does not consider himself bound by party ties and votes independently if his judgment so dictates. He owns a fine ranch near Yakima devoted to diversified farming and his residence is one of the beautiful homes of the city. His success is the merited and legitimate reward of earnest, persistent effort, carefully directed. He has made a close study of the public demand in regard to entertainment of a theatrical character and he has done not little to educate and improve the public taste through the presentation of the finest films and the best vaudeville attractions to be obtained on the coast. ******************************** Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer. Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.