Lawndale Theater
4015 West Roosevelt Road,
Chicago,
IL
60624
4015 West Roosevelt Road,
Chicago,
IL
60624
3 people
favorited this theater
The Lawndale, which opened in 1927, was located in the North Lawndale community on Roosevelt Road at Pulaski Road. It was a rather large neighborhood movie house, seating 2,000, which later featured burlesque, and after that, movies once more, before it was closed in 1963. It was known as the Rena Theater in its later years. Most recently, the former theater had housed a church.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 37 comments)
My RENA passby last week – not only no (restorative) activity there, it appears to be getting even worse shape. I predict no real hope, demolition inevitable, steal your last glimpses while you can there on Roosevelt.
Probably just more sheep in the real estate boom.
In “IMAGES of AMERICA- CHICAGO’S JEWISH WEST SIDE” by Irving Cutler, there is a great pic of the Rena- marquee and vertical sign- on page 88.
The theatre is being salvaged
View link
Great pictures,All.
Recently I photographed the interior of the Lawnsdale.
Here is a blog post about it.
It has a facebook page….Lawndale Theatre Chicago Il
Shots of five endangered Chicago palaces—including this one—and a Roger Ebert essay. Chicago Magazine
passing RENA by earlier today i notice more than one boarded-up 1st floor window and door busted wide open
the damage i’d mentioned has thankfully been now boarded-up
notice the rena theatre—as deteriorated as it is—still retains it’s original flagpole atop, a tall one. i don’t think others like it can say that