I went by there. It looks like they’re just removing the collapsed portion, for now at least. I say this because there was no scaffolding on the facade, which there would certainly be if it were all being demolished.
My god, the post office is actually opening? It was supposed to open at the beginning of the year. The Post Office does not occupy any of the former theater space; it is in one of the former shops flanking the lobby back into office space that was constructed long ago where the auditorium once stood, with a few parking spots in the rest of the space. The stagehouse is also still there, although I don’t believe it’s occupied presently. The former lobby is still in pretty good shape except that the terrazzo is covered by carpet, and is used as a meeting room for a branch of Athena Investments, which opened early this year. Previously the rear office space had been connected to the former lobby, but this was shifted for the Post Office.
The Victoria opened September 29, 1912. Here is the account from the Tribune:
“The Victoria, Belmont and Sheffield, opened last Sunday. Despite the fact that the lobby was still cluttered up with scaffolds and painters and things, the theater played to capacity.
The auditorium is illuminated by indirect lighting. There are 1,000 seats on the lower level and 1,550 in all. The seats are of chair polished mahogany with plush panels.
Sanitation is considered in the rubber tile in place of carpets and in bubbling ice water fonts here and there throughout the house.
There are two tiers of hanging boxes on each side of the proscenium arch. There are six entrances to the balcony from the mezzanine floor. There is a tapestry curtain and tapestry is used to drape the proscenium opening. All modern devices are employed in the stage equipment.
The lobby is two stories high and is wainscoted with Italian marble. It has a depth of twenty feet. Among the conveniences are two rest rooms for women and a men’s smoking room. There are two box offices and the theater is connected with the “L” station by a lighted tunnel.
The front is of French renaissance design and the back, which immediately abuts the “L” station, is got up in imitation of an ancient German castle. The building is 97x127 and is about five stories high.
The Victoria is a popular priced house and is occupied by road shows, dramatic and musical.
“Kindling,” a study in eugenics and tenement life, will be the bill at the Victoria this week. Sarah Padden appears as Maggie Schultz."
A Sept. 29, 1940 Tribune article: “The former 289 seat Grandale theater at 3679 Grand has been replaced with the 600 seat Rex theater designed by Roy B Blass.” So i’m not sure these were necessarily the same theater, although the same site. Blass often did renovation work though, and considering when it opened, it may well have been. I’m just not certain how that much seating could be gained, unless a stage was removed or walls pushed back or something. Here is a 2000 picture of the church.
There’s really no legal reason you couldn’t. But the “Add a Photo” feature on this site has been non-functional for a very long time now. Your best bet would be to use an online service like flickr.com, imageshack.com, or photobucket.com and post a link here.
I do actually have copies of a couple small pictures of the exterior and interior from 1916.
I went by the site the other day, and it really is a mess. They have not done any demolition work yet, and the back wall of a few of the stores has collapsed. I don’t see it standing too terribly much longer, unfortunately. It was an attractive building.
The Rosewood was, of course, named for the intersection of Montrose and Ravenswood. It the theater portion of the building is doomed as part of the Brown line expansion, done in by the very force that brought it into existence at that location. The CTA aquired it in the last month. The theater is empty and has a fence around the front; the corner cleaners too. The rest of the building is still in operation. It has some nice Sullivanesque terra cotta medallions. The auditorium was not entirely gutted for the contractor’s shop and still looks mostly the same; it was a simple barrel-vault design with arches. There are windows cut into the sides that you can peer into.
The auditoria here are nearly identical to the Esquire.
AMC seems to have slightly improved things; the carpet is either new or freshly cleaned, and the large theater is kept clean and has refurbished seats with new dark blue covers. The smaller auditoria are still kind of dirty and have their worn out seats and scent.
That’s pretty cool, RobertR. Where did you find it? I will shortly add a couple more historic interiors of the building for reference purposes only to my flickr including the much-requested original auditorium view. Also those who suggested that the lobby was largely a fascimile of the original are totally right, it was a reconstruction for the most part, but I think it still retained the character fairly well. The auditoriums were nonetheless pretty dreadful.
In fairness, it was put up by the building’s owner, not Village. Although Village is terribly cheap about signage, like the CO logos that are still everywhere. In fact, at Bloomingdale Court, they took half of the CO logo and rotated it 90 degrees to make a ‘V’ for Village.
I went by there. It looks like they’re just removing the collapsed portion, for now at least. I say this because there was no scaffolding on the facade, which there would certainly be if it were all being demolished.
My god, the post office is actually opening? It was supposed to open at the beginning of the year. The Post Office does not occupy any of the former theater space; it is in one of the former shops flanking the lobby back into office space that was constructed long ago where the auditorium once stood, with a few parking spots in the rest of the space. The stagehouse is also still there, although I don’t believe it’s occupied presently. The former lobby is still in pretty good shape except that the terrazzo is covered by carpet, and is used as a meeting room for a branch of Athena Investments, which opened early this year. Previously the rear office space had been connected to the former lobby, but this was shifted for the Post Office.
Lost Memory: Please send me an email. Thank you. (Sorry to leave an irrelevant comment here)
That article is here
The Victoria opened September 29, 1912. Here is the account from the Tribune:
“The Victoria, Belmont and Sheffield, opened last Sunday. Despite the fact that the lobby was still cluttered up with scaffolds and painters and things, the theater played to capacity.
The auditorium is illuminated by indirect lighting. There are 1,000 seats on the lower level and 1,550 in all. The seats are of chair polished mahogany with plush panels.
Sanitation is considered in the rubber tile in place of carpets and in bubbling ice water fonts here and there throughout the house.
There are two tiers of hanging boxes on each side of the proscenium arch. There are six entrances to the balcony from the mezzanine floor. There is a tapestry curtain and tapestry is used to drape the proscenium opening. All modern devices are employed in the stage equipment.
The lobby is two stories high and is wainscoted with Italian marble. It has a depth of twenty feet. Among the conveniences are two rest rooms for women and a men’s smoking room. There are two box offices and the theater is connected with the “L” station by a lighted tunnel.
The front is of French renaissance design and the back, which immediately abuts the “L” station, is got up in imitation of an ancient German castle. The building is 97x127 and is about five stories high.
The Victoria is a popular priced house and is occupied by road shows, dramatic and musical.
“Kindling,” a study in eugenics and tenement life, will be the bill at the Victoria this week. Sarah Padden appears as Maggie Schultz."
By 1918 the site was an auto dealership
A Sept. 29, 1940 Tribune article: “The former 289 seat Grandale theater at 3679 Grand has been replaced with the 600 seat Rex theater designed by Roy B Blass.” So i’m not sure these were necessarily the same theater, although the same site. Blass often did renovation work though, and considering when it opened, it may well have been. I’m just not certain how that much seating could be gained, unless a stage was removed or walls pushed back or something. Here is a 2000 picture of the church.
There’s really no legal reason you couldn’t. But the “Add a Photo” feature on this site has been non-functional for a very long time now. Your best bet would be to use an online service like flickr.com, imageshack.com, or photobucket.com and post a link here.
View link . You’ll have to look at the newspaper images full-size to discern them.
I do actually have copies of a couple small pictures of the exterior and interior from 1916.
I went by the site the other day, and it really is a mess. They have not done any demolition work yet, and the back wall of a few of the stores has collapsed. I don’t see it standing too terribly much longer, unfortunately. It was an attractive building.
It closed May 3, 1953 and was considered for use as a dance hall, but the community did not allow it and it underwent retail conversion.
I should add that I do have copies of photos showing the facade and interior from opening. The interior was much like the Logan before it was quadded.
Well yeah! I agree it looks cool. I’m just saying is all.
The Rosewood was, of course, named for the intersection of Montrose and Ravenswood. It the theater portion of the building is doomed as part of the Brown line expansion, done in by the very force that brought it into existence at that location. The CTA aquired it in the last month. The theater is empty and has a fence around the front; the corner cleaners too. The rest of the building is still in operation. It has some nice Sullivanesque terra cotta medallions. The auditorium was not entirely gutted for the contractor’s shop and still looks mostly the same; it was a simple barrel-vault design with arches. There are windows cut into the sides that you can peer into.
The auditoria here are nearly identical to the Esquire.
AMC seems to have slightly improved things; the carpet is either new or freshly cleaned, and the large theater is kept clean and has refurbished seats with new dark blue covers. The smaller auditoria are still kind of dirty and have their worn out seats and scent.
Ron Rooding, who runs Village Entertainment, bought the theater in 1993. It was quadded two years earlier.
My main concern with the Showplace is that there seems to be very little parking directly around the theaters. Is there any plan to address that?
I was at the Hotel Florence a couple of months ago. Still a lot of beauty inside, but it needs a huge amount of work too.
That’s pretty cool, RobertR. Where did you find it? I will shortly add a couple more historic interiors of the building for reference purposes only to my flickr including the much-requested original auditorium view. Also those who suggested that the lobby was largely a fascimile of the original are totally right, it was a reconstruction for the most part, but I think it still retained the character fairly well. The auditoriums were nonetheless pretty dreadful.
I think it might have been edited, but the full version didn’t cover much of the history anyway.
View link
http://www.jamusa.com/vic/pictures-general.htm
Some more busts from the facade are on a wall in front of a home on Geneva Terrace near Fullerton Avenue.
In fairness, it was put up by the building’s owner, not Village. Although Village is terribly cheap about signage, like the CO logos that are still everywhere. In fact, at Bloomingdale Court, they took half of the CO logo and rotated it 90 degrees to make a ‘V’ for Village.
The Cinema’s marquee is now hanging in the lobby of the Chicago History Museum.