Grace Theatre

3303 W. National Avenue,
Milwaukee, WI 53215

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LouRugani
LouRugani on December 21, 2025 at 8:12 pm

Additional Information:This office building was originally constructed as a warehouse in 1911. Its side walls are built of rock-faced concrete block. At an unknown date prior to 1927, the building was converted to a movie theater. In 1936, the front façade was remodeled to include the recessed entryway and second story with an Art Deco-style panel of ridged masonry. At an unknown date, the simulated masonry was added to the front façade. All the masonry is painted in the building, and the existing windows in the storefront are all modern replacements. (WI State Historical Society)

LouRugani
LouRugani on December 21, 2025 at 8:02 pm

Jul 16, 1930, page 10 - Wisconsin State Journal:

Milwaukee Theater Bombed in Labor War

MILWAUKEE (U.P.) A bomb dropped in the entrance to the Grace theater here early today shattered windows in nearby buildings, rolled several persons from their beds in an adjoining apartment and shook the entire neighborhood with its explosion.

The bombing is another chapter in the theater labor war here, police declared after learning that R. S. Haynes and Adolph Oresiec, Grace operators, had recently been asked to join the union but refused on grounds that they would lose their jobs.

The theater suffered least from the bombing, while windows in all nearby buildings were broken.

Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois
Ret. AKC (NAC) CCC Bob Jensen, Manteno, Illinois on July 23, 2013 at 6:18 am

A Grand Barton Theater Pipe Organ 2/, manual/, keyboards/, was shipped 85 miles from the Barton factory in Oshkosh B'kosh, Wisconsin in 1925. Anyone have any idea what happened to the organ?

LouisRugani
LouisRugani on April 22, 2011 at 4:07 pm

(July 16, 1930)
Bomb Is Exploded at Milwaukee Movie House
[Associated Press Leased Wire)
MILWAUKEE â€" A dynamite bomb was exploded in front of the Grace theater, a neighborhood movie house, at 2:55 a. m. today wrecking the front of the structure.
Paul Orsic, manager, said the only motive he could ascribe for the bombing was a disagreement with an operator who wanted to join the union.
A stick of dynamite, the fuse partly burned, was found on the roof of the theater after the blast.