Stadium Theater
226 S. Ninth Street,
Mt. Vernon,
IL
62864
226 S. Ninth Street,
Mt. Vernon,
IL
62864
2 people
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I just posted a few pictures of the Stadium Theater from my trip through Southern Illinois this past Summer. Here’s a link to them in my Flickr photostream:
The office of Kansas City architect Samuel W. Bihr, Jr. submitted a questionnaire for the AIA’s Architects Roster in 1953, which included a list of some of his projects. The Stadium Theatre in Mt. Vernon is one of those listed. It was designed in 1946, and cost $150,000 to build. The questionnaire doesn’t give the year of construction, which might have been delayed due to post-war materials shortages, but it’s safe to assume that the theater was opened in the late 1940s.
This is the building in 2009.
Here are photos from 1983 and 1985:
http://tinyurl.com/pgy976
http://tinyurl.com/oj989r
http://tinyurl.com/pos4uh
The year given for this photo is 1999.
Some theaters are listed on here as being in Mt. Vernon and others are in Mount Vernon. Couldn’t they all be listed the same way. Either Mt. Vernon or Mount Vernon. As it is now, you have to search twice to find all of these theaters.
This seems like a cool late deco/streamline design. The church is called the Antioch International Assembly. Mount Vernon seemed to have a big surge following the construction of its large deco/streamline courthouse. The town also has a cool railroad depot I didn’t get a chance to look closely at as well as what appeared to be an older courthouse. Photos of the Stadium are at http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/ctid3206/
The Film Daily Yearbook, 1950 gives a seating capacity of 775.
The building apparently has been bought by Randy Farrar, who also bought the bookstore and pool hall next door. He’s renovating the pool hall for an upscale pool hall.
The address for the Stadium Theatre is 226 South Ninth Street, Mt. Vernon, Il.