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Chicago’s Morse Theater reopens as music club
posted by
danpetitpas
on
October 14, 2008 at 9:55 am
CHICAGO, IL — The historic Morse Theatre has undergone a complete renovation and opened October 9th as a music hall, restaurant and broadcast studio.
The theater was originially built in 1912 as a 600-seat nickelodeon and a vaudeville house. In the 1930s it was converted into a neighborhood movie theater, but from the 1950s until 1977 it was used as a synagogue. Several stores occupied the building after that until the current owners bought it in 2005 to restore it as a theater.
Renovation of the property began in 2007, but was interrupted in mid-August when an arsonist torched the building, causing $500,000 in damage.
The focus of the 299-seat performance center will be acoustic music and WFMT-FM will be broadcasting a weekly classical music series “Live from the Morse.”
Read more in the Chicago Sun-Times.
