The Fischer Theatre originally opened on 5 November 1884 (as the Grand Opera House?) as a live theatre venue. The first motion picture exhibited at the theater was on 26-27 October 1899 of The Fitzsimmons-Jeffries Fight (1899). The theater was sold on 16 April 1907 to George W. Chatterton Sr. of Springfield, Illinois, who in 1912 sold the theater to Louis F. Fischer. Fischer closed the theater in May 1912 for expansion and renovation.

The Fischer Theatre was reopened 13 March 1913, and was a first-run motion picture house in the 1920s. The theater was again sold in 1929 to Publix Great State Theatres.

In 1971, The Fischer Theatre was sold to the Kerasotes Theatres company of Springfield, Illinois, who eventually closed the theater on 5 January 1982. Ownership of the building transferred to the City of Danville in 1983, who announced its destruction in 1997. Instead the ownership of the building was transferred to the Old Town Preservation Association of Danville, who sold the theater in June 1998 to the Vermilion Heritage Foundation, who sought to restore and preserve the Fischer. A vintage theater organ has been purchased to be installed in the theater before its reopening.

References: FilmYearBook-1926 p. 499 : Fischer Theatre website : with additional information provided by the Vermilion Heritage Foundation, Connie Anderson and Mary Cade.