Wilson Avenue Theater
1050 W. Wilson Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60640
1050 W. Wilson Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60640
2 people
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The Wilson Avenue Theater opened July 19, 1909 as one of the first large venues in the Uptown neighborhood, showing two vaudeville performances nightly. It was designed by Henry L. Ottenheimer and built at a cost of $50,000 for the Jones, Linick, Shaefer circuit. The theater seated 600 on the main floor and 300 in the balcony. The interior was described as pretty, and in buff and gold, with a mural over the proscenium, while the opening night show was not such a pretty sight.
Acts from the American Music Hall in the Loop frequently performed there. In 1919 it was converted to a bank, Fidelity Bank. Later it was the Uptown State Bank, Federal Trust and Savings Bank, and then the Bank of Chicago. It remains so today as a TCF Bank, with a mural on one side visible from the El and a trompe l'eoil mural on the other. The interior still looks like a cross between a theater and a bank.
Contributed by
Brian Wolf
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Recent comments (view all 20 comments)
Oh, I know, I just wanted to make sure it was clear for the record (this page)
And finally, a nice view of the original facade:
WILSON AVENUE THEATER II L Ottenheimer Architect Book of the Annual Exhibition of the Chicago Architectural Club By Chicago Architectural Club
BWChicago, unfortunately the 11/10/08 link reverts back to the CT/Wilson Avenue Theater page. Is there another link perhaps?
http://uptownhistory.compassrose.org/2011/08/bank-of-chicago-wilson-ave-date-unknown.html
@Broan: Unfortunately, that picture in the Book of the Annual Exhibition is not the original facade. It is merely a rendering of Ottenheimer’s concept for the theater. The actual finished building never looked like that. This is easily discernible from the condition of the extant facade.
Coincidentally there is an article about the recent sale of this theater that came out today.http://www.uptownupdate.com/ www.uptownupdate.com if the link doesn’t work.
I walked though the building yesterday with the new owners. I am considering leasing the space and turning it into a small cinema. THe stone work is amazing – although years as use of bank has chopped the thing up and really, I am not sure it was ever a theater from the very start. As the basement contains a vault that is easily 500 sf.
storefrontcinema: Let me know where I can send my resume.
1975 photo added, photo credit William Brubeck, courtesy of the UIC Collection.
Just posting this because it has the former Wilson Avenue Theater in an artist’s rendering of the proposed building next door. But the project seems to be borrowing the theater’s address.
https://chicago.curbed.com/2018/1/5/16846120/uptown-development-news-tod-construction