Raue Center for the Arts
26 N. Williams Street,
Crystal Lake,
IL
60014
26 N. Williams Street,
Crystal Lake,
IL
60014
5 people
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Opened in 1929 as the El Tovar Theatre, this theater was a welcome addition to northern Illinois as a movie and vaudeville theater.
The interior, complete with dressing rooms and an orchestra pit, was designed in the Mission style and a spectacular pipe organ occupied its own loft close to the stage.
The El Tovar Theatre reopened in 2001 as the Raue Center for the Arts. The renovation included expanding the stage and completely re-doing the stage house. The Mission style decorations have been retained.
Contributed by
Dave Wiegers
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
This is a 2008 photo.
Here is a nice recent photo.
Another 2009 photo is here.
A 2/4 Wurlitzer was installed in the theatre in 1929.
Here is a recent close up.
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What happened to the organ? Where is it?
In the early 1950’s, the organ from this theater was purchased by Leon Berry and installed in his basement. One of the very first stereo album releases was “Leon Berry at the Giant Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, volume 3” released March 31, 1958 on Audio Fidelity records – AFSD, 5844.
I am a volunteer with the Raue Center and working on the theatre’s history. If anyone is willing to share photos, stories, etc., please let me know. And in reply to an old post by Warren Harris asking about the pronunciation – the name rhymes with “wow”
JMINS, I recommend calling the Theatre Historical Society in Elmhurst. They should have information on the El Tovar/Raue Center.
Thankss, Bruce C. Actually gave their group a tour and got some info from them. Just looked like some of the people on here had personal memories/info they might want to share.