Village Art Theatre
1548-50 N. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60610
1548-50 N. Clark Street,
Chicago,
IL
60610
16 people
favorited this theater
Built as the Germania Theatre and opened July 29, 1916. It changed name to the Parkside Theatre after the US entry into World War I when anti-German sentiment was running high. The theatre later went through a couple of other name changes over the years including the Gold Coast Theatre in January 1934 and the Globe Theatre. The theatre is located on N. Clark Street at Germania Place in the Old Town neighborhood of Chicago.
Prior to being divided into four small auditoriums in the early-1990’s, the theatre could seat 900. Little remains of the original interior design, but the facade, despite being almost entirely hidden behind an ugly modern marquee, is still intact and features red brick and beige terra-cotta highlights.
Long a popular venue for art, foreign and cult films, the Village Art Theatre was closed in March 2007.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 160 comments)
Here’s a 10/06/15 article about the project.
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/realestate/20151006/CRED0701/151009914/old-town-condos-go-on-the-market
Thanks DavidZornig for the updates. Glad they decided not to tear down the theatre!
Somebody wrote to me and told me that the Germania Theatre might have opened on June 24, 1916; although he said that is unconfirmed. Does anyone out there know an exact date of the Germania’s opening? I can’t find any ads in the June 24, 1916 Tribune.
First small ad as Gold Coast from January 14th, 1934 in the photo section. Also checked the Tribune from 1916.06.24 and found nothing on Page 15.
I suspect the development that was to be built incorporating the Village Theatre facade either fell through or has been put on hold. The banners said Spring 2017, and one of them has blown over the top of the old marquee. Nothing has taken place except the vacancies on the North Avenue side. Elly’s Restaurant is still open.
Here is the 2008 preliminary landmark designation archive. It describes the property and lists various additional history that may or may not have been in previous dead links. I happened across it looking up something else.
https://archive.org/stream/CityOfChicagoLandmarkDesignationReports/VillageTheatre_djvu.txt
On 8/4/16 Variety reported that the Germania had opened July 29, 1916, calling the house “one of the prettiest in Chicago”.
On 9/21/17 the Chicago Tribune reported that Lubliner & Trinz were negotiating to lease the theater, this must have fallen through.
It was renamed by May, 1918 due to WWI anti-German sentiment.
Added 6 pics I took yesterday.
I would love to see this theatre renovated and turned into something akin to the New Beverly in LA…
The current Skyline newspaper has an article titled “Stalled Old Town condo project moving forward with a new developer”. The online version requires a subscription.
http://www.insideonline.com/