T-bird79: never knew there was residential in the Franks' building. We moved on Peoria Street in 1965…just as the whites were leaving. An inglorious chapter of chicago’s race relations. There were so many nice things….the sunset club, capitol theater, walgreens with a soda fountain and restaurant, house of lum’s chinese restaurant, wimpy’s, Oglesby and Calumet used to be good schools, as well as Leo high school…loved spending my saturdays at the Capitol Theater watching triple feature karate movies.
Well Janis, people that look like me moved into the area in the early 60’s (79th and Peoria, still live on the same block), facilitated by people that look like you who were in such a hurry to move to Oak Lawn, Stickney, Palos, Evergreen, etc.
I went to Oglesby three blocks down the street at a time when the Chicago Board of Education put trailers in the parking lots to relieve overcrowding instead of building new schools or heaven forbid, bus us to half empty schools across the dividing line of Western Avenue.
As for the “bombed out” look, you should take a drive down 79th street now (you will be safe) – you would not recognize it. Yes, Franks Dept Store, Walgreens, Woolworth, Kresgee, Burt’s, HFC, Highland Bowl, etc. are gone. But now there is a LaSalle Bank, CVS Drugstore, sitdown restaurants, a reivigorated Leo High School, SafeALot grocery chain, new 6th District police staton, etc.
I have lived in this area since 1965, part of the migration that saw many people flee to the suburbs for fear of us “invaders”. Saw Leo High School’s enrollment drop to almost 300 boys (although it is now flourishing again). The Wimpy’s hamburger place stayed around for a few years then closed. The Walgreens on the corner 79th Halstead has been closed for a while too. There used to be a Woolworth’s kitty corner from the Walgreens, in addition to a department store named Frank’s.
I miss the Capitol theater. It had character, more so than the multiplexes of today.
I moved two blocks from the theater in 1965 as a 3 year old and still live on the block today and have so many fond memories of Saturday afternoons spent at the Capitol theater. After the white flight to the suburbs in the late 60’s, the theater stopped getting first run movies and attendance sagged. It was purchased and used by the Gene Ammons (a famous Blues artist) but they went defunct. Now a big empty space sits there. A church tore it down but ran out of money to build their church, so the land now sits as an eyesore.
T-bird79: never knew there was residential in the Franks' building. We moved on Peoria Street in 1965…just as the whites were leaving. An inglorious chapter of chicago’s race relations. There were so many nice things….the sunset club, capitol theater, walgreens with a soda fountain and restaurant, house of lum’s chinese restaurant, wimpy’s, Oglesby and Calumet used to be good schools, as well as Leo high school…loved spending my saturdays at the Capitol Theater watching triple feature karate movies.
Well Janis, people that look like me moved into the area in the early 60’s (79th and Peoria, still live on the same block), facilitated by people that look like you who were in such a hurry to move to Oak Lawn, Stickney, Palos, Evergreen, etc.
I went to Oglesby three blocks down the street at a time when the Chicago Board of Education put trailers in the parking lots to relieve overcrowding instead of building new schools or heaven forbid, bus us to half empty schools across the dividing line of Western Avenue.
As for the “bombed out” look, you should take a drive down 79th street now (you will be safe) – you would not recognize it. Yes, Franks Dept Store, Walgreens, Woolworth, Kresgee, Burt’s, HFC, Highland Bowl, etc. are gone. But now there is a LaSalle Bank, CVS Drugstore, sitdown restaurants, a reivigorated Leo High School, SafeALot grocery chain, new 6th District police staton, etc.
Thank you Bob, for those pictures.
They bring back such fond memories of many Saturday afternoons spent at the Capitol theater.
Looking at those pictures makes it seem like only yesterday to me, although is it approaching decades since I have been there.
Thanks so much, again.
I have lived in this area since 1965, part of the migration that saw many people flee to the suburbs for fear of us “invaders”. Saw Leo High School’s enrollment drop to almost 300 boys (although it is now flourishing again). The Wimpy’s hamburger place stayed around for a few years then closed. The Walgreens on the corner 79th Halstead has been closed for a while too. There used to be a Woolworth’s kitty corner from the Walgreens, in addition to a department store named Frank’s.
I miss the Capitol theater. It had character, more so than the multiplexes of today.
The facility was in such horrible shape by that time, it would have cost more to rehab, than to tear it down and start over.
I moved two blocks from the theater in 1965 as a 3 year old and still live on the block today and have so many fond memories of Saturday afternoons spent at the Capitol theater. After the white flight to the suburbs in the late 60’s, the theater stopped getting first run movies and attendance sagged. It was purchased and used by the Gene Ammons (a famous Blues artist) but they went defunct. Now a big empty space sits there. A church tore it down but ran out of money to build their church, so the land now sits as an eyesore.