Rialto Square Theatre
102 N. Chicago Street,
Joliet,
IL
60432
102 N. Chicago Street,
Joliet,
IL
60432
24 people
favorited this theater
Built for the Rubens Brothers Theatre Company in 1926, the prestigious Chicago-based firm of Rapp & Rapp, known for its Chicago palaces like the Uptown and Chicago Theatres, was hired to design the largest and most elegant vaudeville theater built in Illinois outside Chicago at the time.
It was built in the French Renaissance style, but also contains elements of the neoclassical and Rococco styles. Besides its very luxurious decor, like the Rotunda modeled after Rome’s Pantheon or its stately Esplanade, or inner lobby, based on Versailles' Hall of Mirrors, the Rialto is still famed for its great Barton Grande Organ, a 1927 original cared for by the Joliet Area Theatre Organ Enthusiasts.
Though the Rialto Square closed as a movie theater in the mid-1970s, it was rescued from impending demolition by a grass-roots campaign and restored to its former glory in 1980 and reopened the next year as a performing arts center.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 43 comments)
A 1926 ad for the Rialto can be seen here.
There is a book series called Images of America, featuring one book titled “Joliet” by author & Joliet native Marianne Wolf. I bought the book in 2006 at the Chicago Cultural Center.
Pages 113-115 are dedicated to Rubens Rialto Square.
There are four pictures with descriptions of the building, lobby, Barton Grande Theatre Pipe Organ, and stage.
The book is/was printed by Arcadia Publishing.
1976 Photo
1982 Photo
Here are a couple of my pictures of the Rialto Square that I took this summer (on a rather rainy, dreary day):
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Theatre appears at # 133 on the 150 places to visit in illinois
http://www.illinoisgreatplaces.com/
A little bit of the rialto’s organ can be heard here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9edgBuaCd0o
close up of the massive facade
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Exterior
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Auditorium
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2009 photo of the front of the Rialto Square Theatre.
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I saw many movies in the Rialto. The sheer size and the magnificant decor made every visit an event. Portions of the film Stir of Echoes starring Kevin Bacon were filmed inside the Rialto.