Adelphi Theater
7074 N. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60626
7074 N. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60626
10 people
favorited this theater
The Adelphi, built in 1917 for the Ascher Brothers circuit, was designed by local architect J.E.O. Pridmore. The theater stood on Clark Street at Estes Avenue in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood.
In the 1930s, the Adelphi received an Art Deco remodeling. The theater was modernized during the 1940s and again in the 1950s. It began to show second-run features starting in the late 1960s, and closed briefly in the early 1980s, after several years screening Spanish movies.
In the mid 1980s, the Adelphi reopened as the North Shore Theater, but was again known as the Adelphi when it began to show East Indian films and became the premiere venue for Bollywood features in the Chicagoland area, despite its down-on-the-heels appearance both inside and out.
The Adelphi closed in January 2002. Sadly, the still-viable theater was demolished in January 2006.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 82 comments)
Here is a 1982 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/df4fzc
1984 Photo
I worked as a projectionist at the Adelphi from Feb. 1993-Oct. 1994. It was one of the last projection booths with carbon arc lamphouses at the time. The late great Don Klein (1937-1999) operated the theatre. He tried to keep the place open as long as he could, but he finally relented and sold the business to Indian film exhibitors in 1995. I wish Don was still alive today. He’d be on the Cinema Treasures website 24/7. He really loved old-time movie houses. Working there was interesting, sometimes depressing, other times just downright scary. There were a couple of shootings near the theatre. Rats? Oh yeah, BIG ones. Attendance? Sometimes it was good; other times okay; and there were really slow weeks. The theatre was up and down; sometimes classy films; other times cinematic trash. It was one of the last of it’s kind: a double-feature theatre with 2nd-run prices. I really miss this theatre. I was hoping it would make it. It’s the type of theatre I miss working for: a single screen theatre. Well, as Don Klein said to me shortly before he died: “Let’s face it, Timmy, there’s just no place in this world for guys like me and you anymore.” P.S. If anyone is interested, there is a liquor store across the street from the Adelphi. It used to be a small movie house called Archibald’s Casino. Thank you for trying, Bill Morton. You and Don would’ve been great friends.
Bill and I are putting together a memorial site for the adelphi theater. If anyone has pictures that would like to see posted on the site or memories they want to share please e-mail me at If you have photographs that you would let us scan and post, please send them or visit us at QUEST – 7301 N. Sheridan Rd. in Chicago. The memorial site is www.adelphitheater.com
Thank you,
Kris
Here is an undated vintage photo of the entrance of the Adelphi.
And so the hole remains to this day…
I went by here a few weeks ago and was sorry to see that nothing has been done with the site. While this is a personal matter for us architecture fans it is not uncommon. There are unfinished projects from the boom all over Chicago. I remember going to the Adelphi in the late 80’s and early 90’s. It was kind of a dump at that point, and I’m sure the ten years after that didn’t help. But at least it filled the lot and was rented out for the occasional Bollywood film.
I rode past the Adelphi site on the Metra recently. It’s still a pit and whatever steel beams the builders did erect are gone now.
It somehow went to a sad waste, Not only demolishing the once grand cinema. But leaving it as mere empty space.
My childhood home was about two blocks west of the Adelphi on Estes Ave. As the text notes, by the time I was going to the movies it was mostly showing second-run films. I think you could see a cartoon and a double feature there for a buck. My most memorable experience there was seeing “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” (1971). It was probably the only time I saw kids and their parents in a line that wrapped around the theater down Estes. I saw a lot of flicks there and other nearby theaters, including the Nortown on Western Ave. and the Grenada on Sheridan Rd.