I’ve seen your LJ suercharger (I’m also on LJ, iwerewolf).
Some helpful free photo hosts are photobucket.com, flickr.com… ther eare a few out there. They’re easy to set up and post. You don’t want to see my photobucket account. lol so many pictures for hot linking….
The only fire I can think of that was anywhere near Nortown was across the street in June of 91. I remember it was at 3 AM the morning I graduated from high school. I had been up late on the phone and woke up right before my sister ran into my room. I saw the light from behind the house (coming from the alley) and she then called 911 and woke me up. Our call was the only one that made it to 911 because the fire took out the phone lines. I don’t remember if we ever found out the truth but there was rumors that someone planted a small explosive to set the garage/store behind our building on fire.
That is the only fire I have ever heard of close to the theater.
I would love to see pictures of the place when it was fully intact. I’ve decided that if I ever have the money, I’m going to hunt down the blueprints and rebuild this some place by my house. OK that sounds lazy but we don’t have anything like that up here and with all the transplants from the city, I think it would be more appreciated here than it would be back in the city. After all, look what happened to it there.
No kidding. I’ve found in the city (Chicago) that condos are the in thing, you see more of those built than anything else. I guess mainly because of the space. You can get more out of an old factory or warehouse by converting it to lofts or condos than you can tearing it down and building houses in its place. Where as in the burbs, you’d be hard pressed to find a condo or apartment. I’m in northern lake county and I’m not kidding you, condos and apartments are hard to find. When my friends say they’re moving into a condo or aprtment, I have to ask where and even with specific cross streets, I just can’t picture it. Its one of those things where I almost don’t believe it until I’m standing in the unit itself. They’re there, just hard to find.
Condos and homes are a fraction of the cost up here than they are in the city. You can get a good sized house up here for what you’d pay for a 1 bedroom condo in the city. You also won’t have to pay extra for parking because you have a garage. As much of a city girl as I am deep down, I can never move back. Anytime I drive into the city to visit friends or family that live in condos/apartments and I drive around looking for parking (because I know better than to pay for a parking lot) I’m reminded of why I could never move back.
That is so WRONG! The story of the old Nortown just keeps getting worse. If only I had the money to build my own Nortown and use the original blueprints. I’d have a 21 century copy of the old place.
I have a feeling that when some of you see this picture you’ll know who Belle and I are (we’re not in the picture of course). ;P
But you can see the top of Nortown in the back there. This was taken in ‘82. I don’t know if we have any other pictures where the building can be seen or not. I’ll look for them next time I’m looking through old pictures.
I just wish I had my own pictures of the interior back before it was ruined. It’s interesting, in the 24 years I lived there, I never once went around the back of the theater. Those pictures on supercharger’s LJ were interseting to see. I always wonder if I know the owners of pictures around my old neighborhood.
I was just there a couple weeks ago (first time in years) and was bummed to find tickets went up to $7.50/person. Course that’s still nothing compared to anywhere else. I paid $14.50 for admission, nachos and a bottle of water all for myself for X3 opening night. Not bad considering a couple years ago I paid $20.00 for pretty much the same thing at the Round Lake Theaters.
Does anyone know if this place is for sale? In all seriousness my oldest brother wants to buy a drive in and when I mentioned I once heard this was up for sale he told me to see if it still was. IF it is and he purchases he he will keep it open because he’s a theater lover like the rest of us.
ah, might help if I wander around the boards there then. ;P
Thanks! I’m actually (FINALLY) taking my vacation the week of the 16th and am seriously thinking of making a trip down to the city just so I can see if I can wander around the old place myself. Its odd but I’ve been having a lot of dreams about Nortown lately. All current day but it looks like it did pre triplex. The last one I had, oddly enough, was different. The theater was still there, or at least the main floor of the auditorium but the balcony wasn’t (at least I don’t remember seeing the balcony) yet the ceiling was entac and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I whiped out my camera and took pictures.
Now the odd thing about this is the theater was also a mall, I guess like the Century. Only the theater was downstairs while the mall was upstairs.
don’t ask where that came from. I have yet to figure it out. lol
Out of curiosity, for those of you that have taken pictures inside theaters, how is it you’ve done that. By that I mean do you just walk in with a camera and start snapping away or do you actually ask for permission, especially since its done when the theater isn’t open to the general public?
Total random comment but I was just at the McDonalds in Libertyville and due to a downed machine, had to wait a few minutes for my food. I noticed they have a Wurlitzer jukebox.
Everything about this is heart breaking.
Found this:
View link
I can’t believe it’s gone..
what channel did you see that on? I wonder if they’ll hae that info on the web?
Thanks for the link. Great pictures (quality and eye), just wish they were of a living, breathing, thriving Nortown as it was back in the day.
I’ve seen your LJ suercharger (I’m also on LJ, iwerewolf).
Some helpful free photo hosts are photobucket.com, flickr.com… ther eare a few out there. They’re easy to set up and post. You don’t want to see my photobucket account. lol so many pictures for hot linking….
Those pictures are truely heartbreaking.
I was going to stop by yesterday but I didn’t get a chance to. :(
that just sucks!
I’m going to have to drive by there next Thursday when I go to my brother’s house.
Sounds like it to me.
The only fire I can think of that was anywhere near Nortown was across the street in June of 91. I remember it was at 3 AM the morning I graduated from high school. I had been up late on the phone and woke up right before my sister ran into my room. I saw the light from behind the house (coming from the alley) and she then called 911 and woke me up. Our call was the only one that made it to 911 because the fire took out the phone lines. I don’t remember if we ever found out the truth but there was rumors that someone planted a small explosive to set the garage/store behind our building on fire.
That is the only fire I have ever heard of close to the theater.
I have no clue. I’ve never heard of any fires there, and I moved out of our old place (on claremont) and up here 10 years ago.
I would love to see them Nortown.
I would love to see pictures of the place when it was fully intact. I’ve decided that if I ever have the money, I’m going to hunt down the blueprints and rebuild this some place by my house. OK that sounds lazy but we don’t have anything like that up here and with all the transplants from the city, I think it would be more appreciated here than it would be back in the city. After all, look what happened to it there.
I still don’t get how anyone could ruin a place like that.
If only I had the money to build another one….
oh and I had gone there during the triplex days. Even saw a movie upstairs. that was so wrong.
No kidding. I’ve found in the city (Chicago) that condos are the in thing, you see more of those built than anything else. I guess mainly because of the space. You can get more out of an old factory or warehouse by converting it to lofts or condos than you can tearing it down and building houses in its place. Where as in the burbs, you’d be hard pressed to find a condo or apartment. I’m in northern lake county and I’m not kidding you, condos and apartments are hard to find. When my friends say they’re moving into a condo or aprtment, I have to ask where and even with specific cross streets, I just can’t picture it. Its one of those things where I almost don’t believe it until I’m standing in the unit itself. They’re there, just hard to find.
Condos and homes are a fraction of the cost up here than they are in the city. You can get a good sized house up here for what you’d pay for a 1 bedroom condo in the city. You also won’t have to pay extra for parking because you have a garage. As much of a city girl as I am deep down, I can never move back. Anytime I drive into the city to visit friends or family that live in condos/apartments and I drive around looking for parking (because I know better than to pay for a parking lot) I’m reminded of why I could never move back.
That is so WRONG! The story of the old Nortown just keeps getting worse. If only I had the money to build my own Nortown and use the original blueprints. I’d have a 21 century copy of the old place.
I have a feeling that when some of you see this picture you’ll know who Belle and I are (we’re not in the picture of course). ;P
But you can see the top of Nortown in the back there. This was taken in ‘82. I don’t know if we have any other pictures where the building can be seen or not. I’ll look for them next time I’m looking through old pictures.
View link
I just wish I had my own pictures of the interior back before it was ruined. It’s interesting, in the 24 years I lived there, I never once went around the back of the theater. Those pictures on supercharger’s LJ were interseting to see. I always wonder if I know the owners of pictures around my old neighborhood.
I was just there a couple weeks ago (first time in years) and was bummed to find tickets went up to $7.50/person. Course that’s still nothing compared to anywhere else. I paid $14.50 for admission, nachos and a bottle of water all for myself for X3 opening night. Not bad considering a couple years ago I paid $20.00 for pretty much the same thing at the Round Lake Theaters.
Does anyone know if this place is for sale? In all seriousness my oldest brother wants to buy a drive in and when I mentioned I once heard this was up for sale he told me to see if it still was. IF it is and he purchases he he will keep it open because he’s a theater lover like the rest of us.
Those pictures are just…
If I had the money I’d find the blueprints and anythng else of the original artwork/plans I could and basically rebuild it someplace worthy of it.
too bad I’m broke.
I doubt there would have been any way of having this declared as a national historic landmark. I can dream can’t I?
ah, might help if I wander around the boards there then. ;P
Thanks! I’m actually (FINALLY) taking my vacation the week of the 16th and am seriously thinking of making a trip down to the city just so I can see if I can wander around the old place myself. Its odd but I’ve been having a lot of dreams about Nortown lately. All current day but it looks like it did pre triplex. The last one I had, oddly enough, was different. The theater was still there, or at least the main floor of the auditorium but the balcony wasn’t (at least I don’t remember seeing the balcony) yet the ceiling was entac and I couldn’t believe my eyes. I whiped out my camera and took pictures.
Now the odd thing about this is the theater was also a mall, I guess like the Century. Only the theater was downstairs while the mall was upstairs.
don’t ask where that came from. I have yet to figure it out. lol
Out of curiosity, for those of you that have taken pictures inside theaters, how is it you’ve done that. By that I mean do you just walk in with a camera and start snapping away or do you actually ask for permission, especially since its done when the theater isn’t open to the general public?
sorry, just thought of that
I don’t get how people can do that to something so grand
Total random comment but I was just at the McDonalds in Libertyville and due to a downed machine, had to wait a few minutes for my food. I noticed they have a Wurlitzer jukebox.