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 20 comments)
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.
Open 1925-1963
In 1925 a Kimball Theater Pipe Organ 3/21 Manuals/Rank (Keyboard/Sets of Pipes) was shipped to this theater.
William Wallace Kimball founded the W.W. Kimball and Company in Chicago in 1857. At certain times in the 19th and 20th centuries it was the largest piano and organ manufactuer. Kimball began assembling REED organs in 1877. The factory produced 15,000 organs a year, as the world’s largest organ maker. They produced 403,390 REED organs. The PIPE organ division built 7,326 models. They also went on to make ELECTRONIC/ELECTRIC organs.
From the photos above the console in 2007, was in a residence in Omaha, Nebraska. Anyone know what happened to the pipes?
The organ itself went to Jim Walgreen and was broken up for parts when he got rid of everything. It was in BAD shape by that point, which is really a shame.
February 3rd, 1926 grand opening ad has been posted here.