Nortown Theater
6320 N. Western Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60659
6320 N. Western Avenue,
Chicago,
IL
60659
19 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 230 comments found
Yes, very sad to see it go. :(
At least there’s hope for other aging theater palaces. The Genesee theater was fully restored several years ago and is absolutely beautiful! I saw a concert there last year and because I had volunteered to run the merch tables (got me in for free), I was in the lobby during the opening act. I was talking to the workers and a guy that works there knew of Nortown. I forget if he said he worked there too, but he was telling me how they fought to save the Genesee from the wrecking ball and literally managed it as the wrecking ball was outside, waiting to take a swing the next morning.
There is still no new development on this property. Can anyone say: Pop goes the bubble?
In all fairness I’m not sure what future an aging, run down movie palace had in a middle class ethnic neighborhood. The end was probably just sped up by the real estate frenzy.
Whatever the eventual outcome it was sad to see it go.
Cool Site.Worked at Nortown from 1978-1982 thru High School. Lied about my age at 15 and worked as an usher. The first movie for me was The Black Hole.Had a mickey mouse trailer to begin flick. I can tell you there are catacombs underneath which I explored. I think it was part of old ac process. We would go under and freak out patrons by moaning loud. Met alot of fun people there. When I was 13 I walked 3 miles to see Star Wars in 77. Anyhow see you all later Ian
Life, yeah I was there in ‘09, stopped by to see the old place on my way back from checking out Le Cordon Bleu and I was surprised at how small the lot was. I remember the building being HUGE and then the stores next to it went up to Woolworth, or at least it seemed like it. It’s funny that I don’t even remember that alley access, growing up.
I took a few pictures with my cell phone of the lot and the ads that were painted on the buildings, hidden away for close to a century. The pictures are on facebook right now but can upload them to flickr if anyone’s interested.
Yeah, all of the above.
Plus I’m sure the cost of heating & cooling such a large structure year round took it’s financial toll.
The basic overhead of such utilities was less of an issue back in the day when these old palaces had full houses.
I mentioned this of some of the downtown theater pages as well.
Too little public parking (only a small lot across the street), and changing neighborhood demographics.
Lot is vacant. No coming soon signs for the development project. The theatre seemed so big, but the vacant lot seems so small. It’s amazing how much they fit onto a limited piece of property.
A 3/15 Wurlitzer was installed in the theatre in 1931
Google Street View shows the Nortown half-demolished. You can see into the balcony from Western Avenue.
I don’t think anything has been built on the site yet. I saw it from Peterson Ave. not long ago.
Cool. I actually saw “Tron” at the Nortown.
And “Flashdance” co-starred Chicago's
own Kyle Heffner. Whom I worked with in Evanston just 2 years earlier. He was part of the Practical Theatre Company on Howard Street too.
Sally’s Stage was across the street from the Nortown. We covered this on one of the other CT pages. The organ they had in the restaurant/bar may or may not have come from the Nortown. I think someone said it was smaller.
Here are some photos from 1982 and 1983:
http://tinyurl.com/cydlco
http://tinyurl.com/c58cth
http://tinyurl.com/csh4mx
http://tinyurl.com/cjbdq2
http://tinyurl.com/cq3qrl
Reactivate Notification Status.
Have they built anything on the site yet?
FYI. There was a two page pictorial of Chicago Movie Palaces in the Sunday Feb. 22nd Chicago Tribune Magazine titled Portfolio/You must remember this.
It was surprising brief with only 3 b&w pictures. No article, just captions describing each photo.
A 1936 exterior of the Parkway Theatre on South Michigan Ave. A 1931 interior shot of the Nortown, and a 1921 shot of just the lobby doors of the Chicago Theatre.
All three photos were courtesy of the Theatre Historical Society of America in Elmhurst.
The replacement project has gone live. http://nortownterrace.com/index.htm
Telephone number in 1954 was ROgrsPk 4-4224.
I remember going with my cousins to see Saturday afternoon double features at the Nortown. Seems they always included one Dracula movie. There used to be a little shop next door that sold candy and maybe even popcorn that you could buy and sneak into the Nortown. I think the last movie I saw at the Nortown was Taxi Driver when it first came out. Sat up in the balcony. Loved the Nortown. Real shame it’s gone.
photobucket.com and flickr.com are a couple other options. With these two (don’t remember if you can do this with image shack as well) you can set up your own account and organize the images in folders and such.
I have images that I would love to post on this site but am not sure how…any suggestions?
Ken, that picture is great! I’d love to see any and all pictures of Nortown like that, that people have. Still breaks my heart that she was destroyed and is now gone.
Nortown, my sister thought she was seeing things. She swore she saw one on rand in Lake Zurich when we were going to Kirklands last week but we didn’t see it and guessed it was closed since information didn’t have the number.
check out their website though, they’re still on Devon.
Here is some detail from the upstairs lobby ceiling:
http://tinyurl.com/2ldyax
Hey Batwoman:
I remember Villa Palermo well! Great thin crust pizza. I recall that two guys ran the place. They may have been father and son since they looked alike. After I moved to the suburbs from Rogers Park 15 years ago, I found that these same two guys had opened up a Villa Palermo in Palatine on Rand Road. It has since closed.
yep, was playing with that last week after my sister mentioned Villa Palermo. It will still entact when I saw it, but there was a dumpster out front. don’t know if things have changed since then.