 2002 photograph of the Piccadilly Building's exteriorPhoto courtesy of Jo Reizner/University of Chicago
It was designed by the firm of Rapp & Rapp, their largest commission by an independent circuit. The Piccadilly was inside a large 14-story tower which also included the Piccadilly Hotel and shops along Blackstone Avenue. This was common for movie palaces in New York City, but a rarity in Chicago. Also unusual was the lack of a projecting marquee at the main entrance to the theater on Hyde Park Boulevard, due to zoning restricitions. It did have a small one at the foyer entrance on Blackstone.
The marquee was flush against the front wall, and, like the enormous window above it, was trimmed by terra-cotta. Unlike many other Rapp & Rapp designed theaters, it did not have a vast main lobby, though its two-story height gave the illusion of being much larger than it truly was.
A small mezzanine contained what was known as a "music room", which was actually just a piano, which was played before shows while patrons waited below in the lobby. The Piccadilly was amply decorated with antique furniture, oil paintings, and copies of ancient sculpture which the Schoenstadt family collected on frequent European trips to furnish their theaters, particularly the Piccadilly.
It was the auditorium of the Piccadilly, however, that was the true treasure of this theater. Designed in the Rapps' typical French Renaissance style, there were also flourishes of Art Deco present, also, which they would later use much more strongly in the Aurora, Illinois Paramount a few years later.
The auditorium was designed with a large main floor and a horseshoe-shaped balcony terminating in faux "opera boxes" on the side walls. The two largest boxes, flanking the stage, contained a harp and a piano, never used until the theater's last day decades later. This piano later found its way to the Fox Theatre in Atlanta.
The Schoenstadts ran the theater for its entire existence and kept it in pristine shape even while the neighborhood that the Piccadilly was in began to decline. Starting in the 50s, attendance began to fall off and the theater was closed in early 1963. The last films shown there was a double feature of "Son of Samson" and "Last of the Vikings".
A decade later, the Piccadilly Theatre was gutted, though the Piccadilly Building still stands today, leased by the University of Chicago for housing and storage space. The terra-cotta facade of the theater is still intact and in excellent condition.
Contributed by Bryan Krefft
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