Along with The Broadway Theatre in Springfield, the Victory represented their expansion into the “major leagues” as they rode the crest of the wave of the movies’ exploding popularity at the end of World War I.

In the 1920s these grand theatres were known as “presentation houses” and offered a combined bill of a silent film and a stage show on the same program and for a single admission price.

The theater closed in 1979 and has sat derelict since; in the mid-1980s the city government was able to obtain the property from a landowner delinquent on more than $50,000 in back taxes.

A local group of activists, Save the Victory Theater Inc., led by Helen Casey worked with the city to raise funds to restore it, including help through industrialist Armand Hammer who put his private art collection on display for an exhibit to raise money for the project, netting about $450,000 (about $900,000 2017 USD) donated to the city's Victory Theatre Commission.

On November 5, 2019, MIFA acquired a property abutting the theater, 134 Chestnut Street, for $224,000, which is expected to be razed as part of a planned larger complex attached to the Victory.

[14][15] Phase 1 of the much anticipated Victory Theatre restoration process was completed with the removal of building abutting the theater.

The 134 Chestnut St. property on the north side of the Victory will be replaced with a new 14,500sq ft. connecting Annex designed by DBVW Architects.