Varsity Theater
1710 Sherman Avenue,
Evanston,
IL
60201
1710 Sherman Avenue,
Evanston,
IL
60201
21 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 95 comments
The interior was gutted a few months back.
Building now has scaffolding around it.
Varsity Theatre to be converted into a 35-unit apartment building with ground floor retail. Evanston Round Table link below.
https://evanstonroundtable.com/2022/05/01/former-varsity-theater-site-council-vote/?fbclid=IwAR0Fr6z9XLKCBnnp6XCYV1MO7glLz2xmph7XiVJTKjEnp40pUs-rovaVuFM
The Varsity Theatre closed on Thursday, August 16, 1984. Photo of final newspaper ad in Photo section.
Last time I drove by, and I don’t remember when that was, the first floor was being used by an Oriental Rug business. It was some kind of storage/pickup/wholesale facility for a nearby show room.
Northwestern Library Digital Collections photo. Varsity marquee on the right. Image will enlarge within link.
https://digitalcollections.library.northwestern.edu/items/78970d34-94c7-4a38-95db-8bc384f3b0ba
5/23/20 photo added credit Joe Agnew. The retail tenants appear to have cleared out…
Hello again. I’m still hunting for any old monthly schedules or other memorabilia from the Varsity. I’ll appreciate any leads. Thanks!
Greetings! I just joined. I lived in the Varsity during my college years of 1974-78. Two different legendary movies every night, a world film course! I’m wondering if anyone might have any of the oversize one page monthly schedules they printed during that period, or know who to contact? Thanks so much!!
Evanston Patch article about the same.
https://patch.com/illinois/evanston/varsity-theater-block-among-states-most-endangered-places
Here’s a link to a Landmarks Illinois 2018 Most Endangered Historic Places report.
1945 photo added via Jeff Warmington. Original wider marquee.
Evanston Round Table, Volume XXI Number 5, March 8, 2018:
Northlight and Developers Withdraw Performing Arts Center Proposal
By Matt Simonette
The redevelopment proposal is dead. https://chicago.suntimes.com/entertainment/northlight-theatres-plans-for-evanston-location-have-been-shelved/
Original link to the 1976 UIC Library photo, which can be enlarged.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/uicdigital/16502571811/in/photostream/
Here’s an opportunity to tell Evanston’s new mayor to save the Varsity and renovate it for Northlight, instead of tearing it down as part of the proposed tower. Ironically held in a new 1920s style speakeasy, owned by Ron Onesti. Who could tell them of his successes at the vintage Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.
https://www.cityofevanston.org/Home/Components/Calendar/Event/4849/250
That’s terrible. Not only does the building destroy the Varsity, it looks like another oversized, cheap-looking development that has no respect for context. I also have to wonder how many more apartments the market can absorb before we get into bubble territory.
Exactly. Any hopes of renovation dashed in one dismissive sentence. New construction is all about egos. They can’t be the “visionaries” they think they are if they recycle something. I’m willing to bet they’ve already planned for a shorter tower. So it will look like a concession to the community when they complain about it’s size.
It’s not in too poor shape to reuse. I was in the theater a few years ago. They wouldn’t get the extra 35 stories of apartments if they restored the Varsity.
Well this is disturbing. Drop the 37 stories idea, renovate the Varsity which is encapsulated behind the GAP, and they’d be heroes to the community. Don’t believe them when they say it is in “too poor shape to reuse”. From this rendering, it looks like they would annex the alley and tear down almost the whole block going North.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/theater/ct-ent-northlight-0906-story.html
I photographed the remains of the Varsity Theatre late last year. Check out some of my pictures and a short write up of the theater at: After the Final Curtain
The Varsity is seen at 12:40 in the below History of Evanston link on YouTube. (The Valencia at 10:37 & 11:09) Film by Ron & Sydney Crawford. Narrated by Byrne Piven of Evanston’s Piven Theatre.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ln64b3sTq6s
A long time ago, after the final showings on Friday and Saturday nights, many moviegoers would then head for either Cooley’s Cupboard or the Coffee Room.
Oil on canvas Varsity painting added, copyright Don Elmi via the below website. Many other theatres featured in it as well. Copy & paste to view.
http://www.anatomicallycorrect.org/alltheworldsastage.htm
1970 lobby photo added, photo credit and courtesy of Mary Gilbert Albrecht, pictured in her uniform