Berwyn Theatre
6404 Cermak Road,
Berwyn,
IL
60402
6404 Cermak Road,
Berwyn,
IL
60402
10 people
favorited this theater
This theater, built for the Schoenstadt circuit as the Parthenon in the western Chicago suburb of Berwyn, opened in 1928. It sat over 1,600 and contained a 4/16 Barton organ.
In 1930, it was renamed the Berwyn Theatre, and its management was taken over by Balaban & Katz. The Berwyn Theatre was re-modeled by architect William L. Pereira in 1936.
The Berwyn continued to operate for another half century. After sitting vacant for several years, the theater was heavily damaged in a blaze in 1990 and demolished afterwards.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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 43 comments)
I grew up in Berwyn, lived there from 1976-1995. My mom & grandma took me there when I was a boy to see Star Wars. I can remember your feet sticking to the carpet which was red.
In 1990 when they were tearing it down, my little brother & I snuck in and took several pictures. I was going through a stack of old & found them.
I guess they won’t let me download pictures at this time. Any interested drop me a line.
Roxy Theatre, Berwyn, Illinois
Once upon a time located on Grove Avenue at 32nd Street next to Beranek Pontiac.
Visited there many times in the fifties.
Does anyobody have pictures?
Cool theatre.
That theatre is intereating. Reminds me sort of the Ra,mova Theatre. In Bridgeport.
From the early 1920s a picture postcard view of the Parthenon Theatre before it became the Berwyn in Berwin IL.
I remember going to the Berwyn Theater many times as a young boy in the late 50’s and early 60’s. As I recall, kids could get in for 25 cents in those days. You actually got to see a double feature with cartoons! How about that!
Douglas Deuchler’s book Berwyn has a larger black-and-white version of the picture of the Parthenon Theatre at the top of this page, and identifies it as a 1924 postcard. That’s probably correct.
Another Arcadia Publishing Company book, Czechs of Chicagoland by Malynne Sternstein, identifies another view of the Parthenon as one of a series of photos depicting Czech communities around Chicago published by photographer by E.F. Macha in 1925.
The architectural style of the building would have been retardataire for the late 1920s. I’d guess that the Parthenon opened in the early twenties, or maybe even the later 1910s.
From Berwyn, a close up showing some of the remarkable detail on the since demolished Berwyn Theatre building.
The Woolwoth’s like store between Ridgeland and Culyer avenues was Neisner’s 5&10 cent store.