North Center Theater
4031 N. Lincoln Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60618
4031 N. Lincoln Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60618
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Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
I should add that that article appeared in the November 23, 1923 Chicago Tribune and stated it would be a 3000 seat venue, and the North Center did not open until February 3, 1926, so it’s quite possible plans changed. I could determine this with more certainty if I saw a photo. A later article mentions that Karzas did, in fact, hold the leases to the Woodlawn, North Center, and the State in Hammond, Indiana. A shift from Ascher to Karzas could easily have brought the delay in building and change in architects.
I don’t think it was as long as the Uptown’s lobby but it was long. I have both interior and exterior photos of the North Center. It’s seating capacity was certainly scaled down from the proposed 3000 seat venue. The theatre though not plain was no match for many of Chicago’s other theatres.
I’d be curious to compare it to the rendering I have to see how drastic the change was, if there was any semblance between the two. It seemed like there was an unusual level of fanfare for the opening of a 1300 seat theater.
Demolition was around 1966 – 67.
Although the theatre had been long closed, just prior to demolition, it was reopened for one day and a final farewell Vaudeville program was presented on a Saturday night. Fortunately my parents took me there to see that show.
While the theatre was dirty, musty and obviously not used for several years, my fond remembrance was finally seeing the towering NORTH CENTER sign lit for my first and last time.
The 1945 Film Daily Yearbook lists the “North Centre Theatre” as a 2500-seat theater run by a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures at that time. I wonder if that count is a typo for 1500?
The rendering I mentioned in December looks entirely different from what was built.
CHICAGO TRIBUNE ad for Wednesday, February 3, 1926, announced that the North Center theatgre, Lincoln & Robey (now Damen) avenue, at Irving Park Road, opened on that date.
A Kimball theater organ size 3/21 was installed in the North Center Theater in 1925.
This is from Boxoffice magazine in May 1941:
CHICAGO-The Essaness Vogue, which has been recently remodeled, had a gala opening Friday. Another Essaness house, the North Center, which has also been remodeled, will have its official opening Thursday.
The grocery store at Lincoln & Belle Plaine was called “Red Owl”, and had a red, black and white owl’s cartoon face as its outside logo. On the west side of Lincoln was the “Childrens Bargain Town” toy store.