Oakland Square Theater

3947 S. Drexel Boulevard,
Chicago, IL 60653

No one has favorited this theater yet

Showing all 10 comments

Life's Too Short on January 31, 2011 at 8:34 am

Fort exterior, 1987:

Life's Too Short on January 31, 2011 at 8:32 am

Inside the auditorum while it was under gang control:

RickB on October 22, 2009 at 6:43 am

According to this blog post a spacious private residence has been built on the Oakland Square site.

lostmemory on September 11, 2007 at 7:42 pm

A Kimball theater organ size 2/8 was installed in the Oakland Square Theater in 1915.

Life's Too Short on December 27, 2006 at 5:07 pm

Life's Too Short on December 27, 2006 at 4:44 pm

http://www.kentimmerman.com/rukn.htm

btkrefft on January 30, 2006 at 3:35 am

Brian, here is that photo of the Oakland Square Theater from the Tribune Magazine. (Not sure how long the link will last).

Broan on January 29, 2006 at 7:00 pm

There’s a photo in this sunday’s (1/29/06) Tribune Magazine of the theatre while the El Rukn gang controlled it. Pretty lovely building.

Broan on December 6, 2005 at 7:04 pm

It apparently was rather innovative when the project was announced; it was noted to contain “no wall seats” (boxes, I presume), held extra-wide seats, and was apparently both the city’s largest all-movie theater at the time, and “the first theater over 1,000 seats without a stage”. Chicago Tribune, July 30, 1915.

phickey on January 14, 2004 at 8:14 pm

Thes was the headquarters of the El Rukin Street gang in the 1980"s, they called it the fort. It was a fortress windows blocked up, gates on doors and escape tunnels.