Nortown Theater

Have they built anything on the site yet?

The replacement project has gone live. http://nortownterrace.com/index.htm

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.

I have images that I would love to post on this site but am not sure how…any suggestions?

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.

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.

For an interesting view of the Nortown, go to Google Maps, and enter in the address 6340 N. Western, Chicago, IL. Click on the “street view” and you will get an image of the Nortown as it was being demolished.

The last time I was in this theatre was just after they partitioned it into three auditoriums. It was for that reason I didn’t return.

I drove by a few months ago and saw that it was demolished. While not surprising as it was boarded up for so long, it was sad to see another lovely theatre gone.

SPearce asked about the Zodiac signs—I think this was because of the nautical theme. Ship navigators used the star signs as their guides during sailing and maybe that’s why they were used in the decor.

The theatre always reminded me of something out of the movie “20,000 Leagues under the Sea.” One could almost imagine James Mason (Captain Nemo) stepping out from behind a pillar.

Thank you. I spent much more time at the Uptown, and also the Granada, than the Nortown. Though this theater was not as ornate as those, it left me with the question I set out above. My recollection is that it was more “marine” than “nautical.” Could be incorrect about that. I also remember the “zodiac motif” and wonder why that was included for this theater.

Senn Class of ‘63

I have taken a couple of days to read the comments on the Nortown, and was having the most difficult time specifically recalling the theater until I viewed photos of the lobby in the links above, even though the lobby reportedly had been painted over since I ever was last there. Still the white, and blue, maybe the gold, brought the Nortown back to me through a direct recall of a question that came into my own mind those years ago while taking in the Nortown lobby. The question came out of the nature of Devon Avenue then.

As to background, in the ‘50s (maybe even the '40s and back to its inception [would be interesting to learn]), Devon Avenue was an active, high end shopping street of small upscale shops, especially women’s dress shops. There were also service shops such as cobblers and tailors, that type of thing. I remember being told by a clerk in a shop that it used to be that matrons would come to shop on Devon Avenue from around the north side of Chicago, and the drivers would pull up and be given a number, and the customer would be given the same number, then when the customer was finished, her driver would somehow be called to pull up in front, and the shops had employees to carry the customer’s packages to the auto. This was still going on in the late '50s. One popular shop on Devon Avenue was Seymour Paisin; I don’t remember how many blocks east of Western Avenue that shop was located, but it may have been just to the west of the central shopping area. I write all of this precedent to saying the following:

I remember running an errand on Devon Avenue then coming around the corner and going to a movie at the Nortown. I chose to remain in the lobby and enter the house for the beginning of the next show, not a real long wait but it gave me time to gaze and consider the Nortown’s design compared to other movie houses in the area. The lobby photos brought me back to the question that developed in my mind that day. I remember having an insight that, perhaps, in its halcyon days, it was that women, single, or in groups, came to Devon Avenue in the mid morning to shop, then maybe ate lunch, then finished their afternoon (together) by attending a matinee at the Nortown? It seemed the perfect setup for that. The color scheme suggested to me then that it was of a particularly feminine style of the ‘50s emphasizing pastels, especially blue, maybe green, and cream colors which were popular in the '50s. It emphasized sunny climes and sleek and fast living, not so different from what might have been found as decor in hotels in Miami Beach and southern California. Think some of Frank Sinatra’s snappiest tunes.

One of the links above led to, I think, the West Ridge site at Wikipedia, which stated this area was a long established Jewish neighborhood, which, indeed, is as I remember it from the ‘50s and early '60s. When I visited this area, it was from farther south on the north side, though I resided just south of Peterson Avenue about '69-'70. As far as the shops on Devon were concerned then, the street seemed to be heading downhill. So, what I have been thinking about as to the Nortown’s interior marine decor, especially the fantastical sea horses in green, is that a fair number of the regular patrons in the Nortown at that time were persons who might spend vacations in Florida or even California. (I also think there may have been women’s dress shops on Devon that specialized in just the type of clothing one might take to Florida, but I can’t be more specific.) If anyone does have such memories of the area, I would be curious to learn what they might have to say. Maybe Bartonius might remember some of this?

Also, nearby there was the beach area to the east, albeit it was a lake, not a sea, and the social environment of the Edgewater Beach Hotel, which had been a pretty active resort in an earlier day.

A coupla: I don’t remember marine designs per se on the exterior of the Nortown; wasn’t it a different motif on the exterior, more tight brick, and classical and art deco designs in the terra cotta? On one of the links, not UrbanRemains, but the Wikipedia link I think, is a photo of Devon Avenue today. On another northside Chicago CT site a blogger mentioned that in Chicgo rehabbers just put something plain up over the exterior of deteriorating old buildings so that when that plain facade is removed later on, treasures of design are discovered. Then there followed lengthy discussion about how to save/preserve; and if something can be saved, what values to consider as to saving structures. (BTW, I appreciated Randall’s comments.) My thought was to study the beautiful design intrinsic to this neighborhood, including what caused the Nortown to have been developed as it was, those shops on Devon might serve as a boon by having some of the current facades removed. Perhaps one day, incentives (not necessarily straight “dough re me” but maybe other incentives) might be developed to rehab a neighborhood before it hits near bottom whether it has viable residency or not. Does anyone remember the design, if any, of the pavement at the front of the Nortown?

I am just wondering if the ambient decor of the Nortown emphasizing a fantasy of water creatures and delightful sea escapism didn’t speak to the type of popular travel destination for Chicagoans I mentioned above, and also celebrated the way art deco emphasized nature and its creatures, a popular style then. I may be wrong on this, but it seems that I looked around the Nortown one time and noticed that most of the design features were about nature and sea creatures, but there really wasn’t much in the design about water itself. Trivia, but I don’t think the Nortown had design features such as water fountains, or waterfalls, or watery designs so much as “things you would find in water or at the beach.” Any comment?

Of Course that should be Wrigley field.

It was even better before they split it. Although they did revert back to a single screen when they tried to save it before closing as a theater for good.

I just ran into someone on LJ in a MFU group of all places that is a fellow west (east) rogers park gal who was surprised to hear me mention that the nortown’s gone now.