Metro Theatre
3308 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
3308 W. Lawrence Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60625
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Ascher Brothers Inc.
Architects: Henry L. Newhouse
Previous Names: Terminal Theatre
Nearby Theaters
This Albany Park neighborhood house was located on Lawrence Avenue near Spaulding Avenue. It opened in 1915 as the Terminal Theatre, and was originally operated by the Ascher Brothers circuit.
In 1925, the Terminal Theatre was renamed the Metro Theatre, after a new and much larger Terminal Theatre opened across the street at 3315 W. Lawrence Avenue.
The theatre was noteworthy because it was only one of a couple of movie houses in Chicago designed with “reverse auditoriums”, where the audience entered at the screen side of the auditorium, facing the rear wall of the auditorium.
The Metro Theatre closed in 1952 and the lobby area was converted into retail space, in addition to existing storefronts in the Metro building. In September 2006, the former auditorium portion of the Metro Theatre collapsed and was razed. In March 2008, the remainder of the building was torn down.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 54 comments)
It’s there:
3300 W LAWRENCE AVE
Description: WRECK AND REMOVE A TWO STORY COMMERCIAL BUILDING.
Total Records: 2
Discipline ApprDate Status
FINAL DATA REVIEW 02/20/2008 APPROVED
FINAL DATA REVIEW 02/20/2008 APPROVED
First-class demo job, too. You can jump from the sidewalk right into one of the windowless storefronts and land in the basement.
It’s gone.
Wish they had save the front of the building.
The Metro always showed movies made by independent film makers…
When I was about 8 years old in ‘45, I put a penny in the automatic pop machine that cost a nickel… and to my surprise a cup came out
and filled up.,when I took it out… another cup came down and filled up…and then another, and I got scared and went back into the movie expecting the theater was going to be flooded. That was the last time I ever tried that!
Oddly, one can still see the building on Google maps street view. Neat!
ANOTHER ONE GONE.
Here is a night view of the Metro from THSA.
My experiences at the Metro in the 40’s were among the most powerful in my childhood, the Saturday children matinees complete with each new installment of a serial like Batman and Robin.
There was not much in ordinary life compared with the power of that big movie screen, a magical power I could indeed feel.
This description of the Terminal Theatre is from an article about the Ascher Bros. chain in the March 10, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World: