Uptown Theatre

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Built in 1925, this Spanish Renaissance Revival-style building was designed by Rapp and Rapp for Balaban and Katz to serve as a large movie palace cinema for the thriving Uptown district on Chicago’s north side. The building was the largest theater in the United States at the time of its completion in 1925, with 4,381 seats, remaining the largest theater in the country until the completion of Radio City Music Hall in New York City in 1932. The building operated as a movie theater and live performance venue initially, with live performances being discontinued in the 1930s due to the Great Depression and the advent of movies with sound. In the 1950s and 1960s, the theater was the filming location of the TV show Queen for a Day, though by the early 1970s, due to dwindling crowds, the theater ceased operation for the first time. The theater reopened briefly between 1974 and 1976, and underwent a partial restoration, before becoming a concert venue in 1976. The theater remained in operation until 1981, when a pipe burst during cold weather due to the building’s heating system being turned off, leading to major damage inside the building. Fixtures, paintings, statues, and the organ from the theater were sold off starting in the 1960s, though some were reacquired and placed into storage during the 1990s. In 2006, owing to damage from years of weathering, portions of the building’s terra cotta front facade were carefully cataloged, removed, and placed in storage, leading to the removal of the ornate parapet from the building. The building is clad in buff brick with a terra cotta front facade at the lobby, a large clerestory lobby window above the front marquee, the structure of the building’s former blade sign mounted to the front facade, decorative reliefs, urns, and corinthian columns, decorative patterned brickwork on the side and rear facades, large arched bays and a rusticated terra cotta-clad first floor on the Lawrence Avenue facade of the building’s rear auditorium wing, large fire escapes on the rear Magnolia Avenue facade of the building’s auditorium, and an ornate terra cotta trim surround at the window above the former Lawrence Avenue entrance. The edges, trim, and parapets of much of the building are covered in tarps to stabilize the building and allow it to remain standing until renovations can take place. Inside, the building features a massive lobby with extensive ornamentation, including massive intricately carved columns, curved staircases, mural-covered ceilings with decorative coffers, a massive proscenium arch within the auditorium, box seats lining the mezzanine below the balcony in the auditorium, and decorative light fixtures. The building was designated a Chicago Landmark in 1991, and is one of the structures that comprises the Uptown Square Historic District, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000, and designated a Chicago Landmark District in 2016. The building has been vacant since 1981, though preservation efforts have allowed for the building to be stabilized until renovations can take place. The most recent plans for renovation were announced in 2018, though the COVID-19 pandemic put this on hold in 2020-2021. Today, the building remains vacant, with its future uncertain.. Openly licensed photograph selected near the verified coordinates.
Photograph: Warren LeMay from Chicago, IL, United States · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source & credits