Panorama Theatre
5110 S. Prairie Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60615
5110 S. Prairie Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60615
1 person
favorited this theater
This theater, on Prairie Avenue south of East 51st Street, and visible from the Green Line of the “El”, opened February 1, 1913 and closed in 1917. The exterior is well-intact. It currently serves as an Elks lodge and a bar.
Contributed by
BWChicago
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater
Recent comments (view all 9 comments)
Architects were Grossman & Proskauer.
Here are photos of this theatre.
Nice pic, Brian. For the age of this building, the terra-cotta is really well preserved and intact. I really like the lion’s heads, you don’t see those very often in Chicago-area terra-cotta. The face in the keystone of the terra-cotta arch in the center looks interesting too, almost like Mercury, although I’m sure it’s actually a female.
I’m told the bar that currently occupies the space has a great genuine deco interior.
A Kimball theater organ was installed in the Panorama Theater in 1914.
Never picked up on this location before. That is a nice building. Kind of reminds me of the Adelphi on N. Clark St.
I can’t believe the bar occupies space going all the way to the rear auditorium wall. I wonder what else is back there? Just storage space I suppose.
What it should remind you of is the Morse/Co-Ed – the facades are extremely similar. Also, note that the terra cotta over the entrance of the Morse is a virtually identical design to that at the Village North. Also similar are the Bertha, Broadway and Village North designs. Grossman and Proskauer seem to have had something of a template.
I can see those comparisons as well. I think the Adelphi comes to mind first because I have seen it more times.
From The Moving Picture World, March 11, 1916:
“The Frances Willard Parent-Teachers Association has arranged with the Panorama theater, Fifty third street and Prairie avenue, to give children’s matinees every Saturday afternoon. On such occasions the theater will be thoroughly fumigated before the presentations and special films consisting of fairy stories and educational subjects will be shown.”
I find it a bit odd that they needed to fumigate the theater before the kids' shows.