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Nortown Theater under demolition
posted by
Broan
on
July 2, 2007 at 8:00 am
CHICAGO, IL — The Nortown Theater, designed in 1930 by J.E.O. Pridmore in what the late founder of the Theatre Historical Society, Ben Hall, described as “King Neptune-Gothic-Atmospheric” style, is currently being demolished.
After suffering years of neglect under a series of owners, starting with triplexing, use as a church, and later a Pakistani community center, the Nortown was left a ghost of its former self, damaged and stripped multiple times.
The current demolition work is limited mostly to the interior, while parts of the shell will likely remain up for a while. The small fraction of decor that remained to this point is being carefully salvaged by Urban Remains, a Chicago salvage firm.
Comments (9)
IT is sad to see the NORTOWN go but it is good that the salvage co. is taking time to remove the parts.
Does anyone have any pictures of the Nortown Theatre taken in the 1960’s and 1970’s? I would love to see them posted.
I know that it is hard to find use for these big, old theaters, but it just broke my heart to see the Nortown get torn down this summer. Another Chicago landmark gone forever.
During the 70’s I worked at the Uptown, Nortown, Chicago, Gateway and several other ABC Great States/Plitt theatres, but the Nortown was my favorite. I love astmospheric houses. This one was in great shape back then. It’s a shame how it went downhill. It really was gorgeous. I have a lot of pictures I took somewhere. I will try to find them. I remember when the Theatre Historical Society had their conclave in Chicago in the 70’s, and the Nortown was one of the theatres included. Everyone had already left when a guy pulled up in a cab and asked if he was too late to see it. I took him around the place, and he was a really funny, interesting man. It turned out he was Kenneth Anger, of “Hollywood Babylon” fame. I’ll never forget that night.
Jayne1955
do you have any old theater sound equipment like speaker amplifier .i pay big money and remove pay cash.773-339-9035
Any pictures of the old Nortown would be greatly appreciated!
Did you check the NORTOWN page on Cinema Treasures i have seen some pictures on the page if that will help you. :)
Thanks. Checked it out but there are no pics there. But the Urban Remains website has a lot of items from columns, terracotta, plaster. And these items give a good feel on what the interior might have looked like. Anyway, there is still a call out for any pics of the interior of the space in it’s hayday.
Well, there are lots posted in the comments, but I’ll be nice and repost the links.
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