Orpheum Theatre
5819 Sixth Avenue,
Kenosha,
WI
53140
5819 Sixth Avenue,
Kenosha,
WI
53140
2 people
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The Orpheum Theatre is currently under renovation.
Contributed by
Dave Wiegers
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The Orpheum Theatre opened March 14, 1922 and was designed by the Milwaukee firm of Martin Tullgren & Sons. (Tullgren designed more National Register of Historic Places buildings in Wisconsin than anyone except for Frank Lloyd Wright.) Tullgren was also an investor in the Orpheum Theatre Company. The interior style is French Provincial.
The theatre was briefly named the Lake Theatre in the 1930s. It closed in about 1977, and by 1992 the entire four-story Orpheum Building had become vacant. The city issued raze-or-repair orders in 1992. Preservationists rallied, the demolition was placed on hold, and the city agreed to lend the demolition cost ($260,000) interest-free for ten years to a bonafide developer. The offer was accepted in 1994 and the Orpheum was twinned and reopened as a second-run house in December 1994. By 1996 the balcony was also twinned. By 2000 the theatre had closed and the building was resold. In 2009 the Orpheum Building is busy again with upscale street-level shops and renewed hopes to reopen the theatre eventually.
The Orpheum Building is seen the 1999 Ernest Borgnine-Eileen Brennan film “The Last Great Ride”.
The Orpheum Theatre is now home to Scoops Ice Cream Shoppe. The interior lobby houses the shoppe, and the building is mainly used for storage for the company. Talks of opening the theatre for movies have surfaced, although nothing has happened since.
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A 3m Barton was installed in the theatre
PatioMike, apologies for not answering sooner. Yes, this is the same theatre, although now in much better condition.
(November 26, 1927)
KENOSHA THEATER STOCKHOLDERS VOTE TO SELL BUSINESS
â€" Kenosha (AP)– Stockholders of the Kenosha Orpheum Theater corporation, controlling four playhouses here with assets placed at $1,500,000, voted unanimously Friday night to sell the assets of the company of the West Coast Theaters circuit, Los Angeles. Details of the sale were not given out.
(Sheboygan Press, August 16, 1933)
Edward Benjil, formerly manager of the Fox theatre, has been appointed manager of the Orpheum theatre at Kenosha.
KENOSHA THEATER STOCKHOLDERS VOTE TO SELL BUSINESS
(November 26, 1927)
Kenosha. Wls. – Stockholders of the Kenosha Orpheum Theater corporation, controlling four playhouses here with assets placed at $1,500,000, voted unanimously Friday night to sell the assets of the company to the West Coast Theaters circuit, Los Angeles. Details of the sale were not given out.
( The Bridgemen’s Magazine, Volume 21 [1921] ) Kenosha – Theater and Office – M. Tullgren & Sons, architects, 425 E. Water street, Milwaukee, soon let contract building 4-story, 60 x 100-ft., brick, concrete and steel, reinforced concrete flooring, concrete foundation, on Main street, for Orpheum Theater Co., 851 Tremont avenue. About $200,000.