Garfield Theatre

rivest266 on October 12, 2010 at 12:16 am

Grand opening ad with picture is at
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lostmemory on February 13, 2009 at 8:28 am

A photo of the church can be seen here.

Life's Too Short on December 24, 2006 at 6:38 am

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btkrefft on April 11, 2006 at 7:46 pm

Here is an article from yesterday’s Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about the work being done on the Garfield Theatre by the new church which recently acquired the building:

Ghosts of the Garfield
Glimpses of movie palace’s former glory linger as congregation moves in
By LARRY WIDEN
Special to the Journal Sentinel
Posted: April 10, 2006

On a recent Saturday morning, the building at 2947 N. King Drive was humming with activity. The ornate ceiling of the former Garfield Theatre is hidden from view by a dropped ceiling in what is now The Greater Philadelphia Church of God in Christ.

Brawny men in overalls and sweatshirts moved desks and tables out of storage, while others collected construction refuse in trash containers. The unmistakable smell of new carpeting hung in the air.

“This is where our worship services will be held,” said Sala Townsend, walking onto the new carpet. “There’s room for about 500 people in here.”

Thompson, a member of the Greater Philadelphia Church of God in Christ, is managing the congregation’s move into its new home.

Also in “here” are echoes of a long-gone era in Milwaukee entertainment. The building, which until February 2005 was the headquarters for Opportunities Industrial Center of Greater Milwaukee (OIC), was built in 1927 as the Garfield Theatre, an opulent movie palace that was the neighborhood’s central entertainment attraction for four decades.

The old Garfield theater may have closed in 1967, but it didn’t go anywhere. It’s been here all along, hiding behind false ceilings and modern conveniences.

OIC closed last year after its chief executive officer was convicted in a bribery case and the state sought the return of hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding. In August, Pastor John Barton Sr. negotiated a deal with the Garfield Foundation, the building’s owners, for his church to purchase the property.

“We’re so blessed to have this building,” Townsend said. “We’ve been given the opportunity to expand our ministry to the people who need our services.”

The former theater balcony, with the original décor intact, anchors the back wall of the church’s new sanctuary. Townsend pointed out that her congregation will be worshipping in what had been the theater’s main auditorium.

A modern floating ceiling from the OIC days hangs about 10 feet overhead. One of the ceiling panels has fallen out of its frame, offering a glimpse above.

Using a flashlight to peer into the space reveals a huge ornamental plaster likeness of a beautiful woman. The layers of dust that have settled on her head and shoulders do little to diminish the piece’s impact.

“Oh my goodness,” Townsend said on seeing the statue. “I had no idea anything like that was up there.”

Upstairs, Townsend, a writer and a photographer entered the quiet, comfortable gloom of the long closed-off space. The flashlight’s beam revealed a statue of a Greek goddess, then a gorgeous, multicolored piece of plaster, and then another and another. The old theater’s 40-foot proscenium arch appears to be intact, looking as good as the day it was installed.

One of an empire’s last outposts
The Garfield opened Nov. 19, 1927, under the direction of Thomas and John Saxe, Irish immigrant brothers who were two of Milwaukee’s first theater moguls. After getting their start with smaller theaters, they continued to build larger and more prestigious venues, including the Princess Theatre – a “deluxe” movie theater, and the first in the city to charge a whopping 10-cent admission price – on what is now Old World 3rd St. between W. Wisconsin Ave. and W. Wells St.

In 1926, the Saxes began building large, downtown-style movie palaces in the city’s then-outlying neighborhoods. Four theaters in all fit the mold: the Tower at N. 27th and W. Wells streets, the Uptown at N. 49th St. and W. North Ave., the Oriental at 2239 N. Farwell Ave., and the Garfield.

The Garfield, the 45th theater in the Saxes' chain, was one of the last the brothers would build. Just four weeks after it opened, the Saxes sold their theaters to a subsidiary of the Fox motion picture studio, which would later become 20th Century-Fox.

Opening-day newspaper articles in 1927 commented favorably on the Garfield’s lavish design, a $1 million replica of a European opera house. You can still see the mock theater boxes with painted murals of pastoral scenes along the side walls of the main theater, and in the classical figures adorning the top of the organ loft.

An era vanishes
The Garfield was an important fixture on 3rd Street all through the Depression and well into the 1940s. Like its counterparts all over Milwaukee, the Garfield was instrumental in selling bonds to support America’s involvement in World War II. It was only when television began to make its way into more and more households that attendance began to fall off.

Little by little, vestiges of the theater’s one-time elegance vanished. The stunning glass window above the entrance was bricked over, the five-story vertical exterior sign came down, and the ticket booth was replaced by a smaller, less elaborate box office. By 1967, the Garfield was forced to close its doors.

OIC’s subsequent renovations included removal of all the seats and leveling the forward pitch in the auditorium floor. The floating ceiling was hung and the area was sectioned off into offices and classrooms.

Considering what happens in many theater-building conversions, the persons in charge of the Garfield changeover were surprisingly sensitive in their approach. Mona Freeman, who leases space in the building for her Right Way Day Care, is enthusiastic about the possibility of removing a portion of the false ceiling and restoring some of the old theater above.

“That is so beautiful up there,” she said. “I would love for our church to bring some of that back.”

Milwaukee writer and film historian Larry Widen is the author of “Milwaukee Movie Palaces.” His latest book about Milwaukee’s theaters, “Silver Screens,” is being published by the Wisconsin State Historical Society this fall.

TimothyRuf on January 27, 2006 at 9:16 pm

The building is now being operated by “The Greater Phidelphia Church of God in Christ”. They have put a new sign in place of the OIC-GM one. Workers were at the site for several weeks, I do not know what work was done to the building.

JimRankin on April 14, 2004 at 12:37 am

Please let me know if you learn anything more about this theatre. Thank You. Jim Rankin =