Chicago Shubert Renovations Turn Up Lost History

posted by Menutia on February 13, 2006 at 9:17 am

CHICAGO, IL — The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that renovation work at the Shubert Theatre (now known as the LaSalle Bank Theatre) has uncovered original interior plaster decoration, as well as brass fittings that were “hidden” to prevent their removal during the World War II era.

The story includes photos and more details about the renovation of this gorgeous playhouse in Chicago’s Loop.

Menutia

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Comments (3)

sdoerr
sdoerr on February 13, 2006 at 9:28 am

What genious! Some unknown person knew they were unique and couldn’t be recreated.

Amazing what lies behind stuff

CHICTH74
CHICTH74 on February 13, 2006 at 8:57 pm

Sometimes you luck out i just hope that the crew working on it find more of the same and really bring it back to the way that it was.
Something like that happened when the reffurb. of the Auditorium Theatre thay found some of the first stage or some kind of a lift for the stage that no one knew about. But i hope that thay find more of the same at the Shubert like the reporter at the sun-times says in the opening of the report “The Shubert was always the red-headed stepchild of Chicago`s great loop theatres” this is no lie.
Before this resteration started it was BAD! But now with all that is happing i hope that it is brought back to the real crowning
glory.

beardbear31
beardbear31 on February 14, 2006 at 5:56 pm

The same thing happened when they were restoring The Rose theater in Omaha, NE. It was an atmospheric theater with tons of statuary. When the theater was remodeled in the early ‘60s, the workers were told to throw all of the statuary in the dumpster. But lo and behold, 30 years later when restoration began, all of the statuary was found in a hidden basement corridor…The workmen it seems could not bear to follow their instructions, and hid them all in the basement. All of the dozens of statues are back in place now. Thank goodness for some people’s good judgement!

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