DeLuxe Theater
589/5205 Hohman Avenue,
Hammond,
IN
46327
589/5205 Hohman Avenue,
Hammond,
IN
46327
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Gregory-Bernasek Theater Corp.
Previous Names: Towle Opera House, Hammond Theater
Nearby Theaters
Two websites on the history of the Calumet region of Northwest Indiana have an exterior photos of the it’s first incarnation the Towle Opera House and, finally, as the Deluxe Theater, apparently the only change was the sign. I couldn’t find any pictures of the interior but assuming it was not remodeled it was said to be on par with those in Chicago. It was equipped with a Kimball 2 manual 8 ranks organ.
It was torn down in 1928 to make room for a department store that later became a Woolworth’s 5 & 10
Contributed by
Lawrence Perkins
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
I believe the DeLuxe Theater was on the site of the former Towle Opera House, which is now operating as the Towle Community Theater. This would have been right next to where Woolworth’s was. I’ve seen photos of the Woolworth building dating back to the 1900s and 1910s when the building was a bank.
This web page has three early photos of the Towle Opera House. From the exterior photo it can be seen that it occupied the lot now containing the Towle Theatre and the lot next door with the building currently housing the Hammond Innovation Center.
This page has a later photo, when the Opera House had become the DeLuxe Theatre, and the commercial space in front of it was occupied by Woolworth’s.
The Towle Opera House opened in 1903, and was called the Hammond Theatre in 1911, but had become the De Lux Theatre by 1912. The spelling was later changed to DeLuxe. I’ve been unable to discover if the building housing the modern Towle Theatre is the one built on the site in 1929-1930, or is of more recent construction.
In observing the Deluxe sign you will notice that it is in the shape of a capital “T”. That is not coincidence. It was the signage of the TOWLE OPERA HOUSE before the Deluxe theatre moved there.
Just added a nice 1927 photo of the Deluxe Theater courtesy of the Planet Hammond Facebook page.
The DeLuxe Theater was previously operated by the Hammond Theatrical Company, the S.J. Gregory Theatrical Company, and Gumbiner Brothers.
In 1929, space which had been occupied by the DeLuxe theater, Simpson’s barber shop, a meeting hall and numerous offices was cleared out to make way for the Schulte-United Junior Department Store, which closed in May 1932. In September 1932 Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company leased the space formerly occupied by Schulte-United. According to the Times, the area leased was once occupied by “the old DeLuxe theater and several other business rooms which were thrown into one large room in the [Schulte-United] remodeling process.”