Sheridan Theatre

Charles— the nightclub across from where the Sheridan used to be is now called Nick’s Uptown. It’s really just a yuppie bar. It used to be a real shady dive bar in the early 1990s when I lived around there and the Sheridan/Palacio was boarded up and home to homeless squatters. The building where Nick’s Uptown is now opened as an automobile showroom in the 1920s. In the early 1990s, there was a Mexican grocery store just to the north at the corner of Cuyler. On the north side of Cuyler, there was a halfway house full of ex-offenders. The neighborhood certainly has changed a lot since the early 1990s.

The last incarnation of the Sheridan Theater was as a Mexican movie theater called the Palacio. I am not sure when it stopped being used as a synagogue, but it was the Palacio by the time I moved into the neighborhood. The Palacio closed sometime in the early 1990s and the building was boarded up. It was constantly being broken into and used by vagrants. And, from what I understand a human torso left over from a murder was found in the building. By the 1990s, It was hard to make out how beautiful the building had been because most of the original terra cotta had been covered with marble or granite slabs to make it into a synagogue. In fact, there were menorah symbols carved on the stone around the entrance. It was not until the building was being torn down that you could once again see the original terra cotta and the building’s splendor.

“Rehabbers” or developers dismantling or covering up decorative details on historic buildings is a classic scenario Chicago. When parapet walls need to be rebuilt or terra cotta needs to be repaired, many building owners take the least-expensive way out and remove or cover these details. Soon, no one realizes how beautiful these buildings once were and they eventually get torn down. One of my favorite recent Chicago preservation success stories is the Riveria Building at Lawrence and Broadway. This beautiful masonry and terra cotta building was covered with a glass and steel structure in the late 1950s. When they covered the building, any terra cotta details that stuck off beyond the surface were literally “shaved” down. This building looked like a wreck during the past 10 years and surely was a prime candidate to be torn down. Fortunately, a bank decided to move into the building and they removed the glass facade and restored the exterior with new brick and terra cotta. The only detail they did not restore was a terra cotta cap along the edge of the roof line.

Have you posted the Sheridan demoltion photos somewhere that I don’t know about yet?

I have lived in Buena Park for 17 years and have seen both the Sheridan Theater and the Mode Theater torn down.

The Sheridan was torn down after the alderman decided that the site would be better served by a generic-looking senior citizen’s building. It took over 6 months to tear down the impressive building. During that time most of the important terra-cotta was removed by Architectural Artifacts, including the huge frieze at the top of the building. I managed to salvage many pieces of decorative plaster and terra-cotta. However, my biggest thrill was be able to roam throughout the building (dangerous, I know) as it was being torn down. Early in the dismantling process, it was possible to go up into the catwalk surrounding the suspended plastic ceiling. The orchestra pit and the dressing rooms were still intact. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. But, I recall being extremely sad realizing that this landmark building would be no more.

I took many photos of the building as it was being torn down, but I will have to locate them. They are packed away in storage.

The Mode Theater was located to the south of Irving Park Road on Sheridan Road—about two blocks from the Sheridan. In its later years, it was a Mexican grocery store. However, you could still tell that it had been a theater at a previous time. This theater was much smaller than the Sheridan, so it was probably easier to convert to another business.

This theater was torn down about 2 years ago to make way for a luxury condo development. I was able to take some photos of the structure after the grocery store effects had been removed. You could still see many of the details from the original theater. Another sad day. Here are some photos that I took of the building as it was being torn down.

View link

I am sure that this theater was called something other than Mode in its early years. Does anyone know the name?

Hi Bryan!
During the years 1960-1968, I lived on Sheridan, next to the L station and then at Irving Park Road. I visited St. Mary of the Lake school in that time period. While my neighborhood movie theater going was limited to the MODE because the SHERIDAN by that time was already a synagogue – I do remember the theater vividly. I returned to the area for the first time in 35 years and found everything intact except for the disapearance of the two cinemas on Sheridan Road. I was wondering if you could tell me something about the nightclub across the stree from the Sheridan theater. It has an impressive facade which I would date to the 1920’s with lots of Egyptian motifs. It could well have been a small cinema too but I’ve never read anything about it. I only now discovered it again on my recent visit.

NEWS ITEM (article concerned closed movie houses in Chicago):
Chicago Daily News, Thursday, Oct. 7, 1954, p. 53 c. 3:

The passing of movie theaters in many neighborhoods had a serious impact on property values.

Closed motion-picture houses tended to paralyze economic activity in their immediate neighborhood, a real estate survey showed last year. Not all of the closed neighborhood theaters declined in property values. Some were converted in other types of business, and one, the handsome Sheridan theater, 4040 Sheridan, was converted into a synagog for Anshe Emet congregation. The Sheridan today would have been a major addition to the number of big houses that came into their own again with the introduction of CinemaScope and Vistavision screens.

Ah, thanks Ken… that’s the one! I’m very surprised after having looked at the entry here (under Mode). I had no idea that it was so old.

The more I look through things here, the more I realize that I can’t always trust my memory. Damn… senile at 44. Or wait… am I 45? Oh, hell, I can’t remember…

Hi all —

Life, thanks for the kind words here (and elsewhere) about the photos. The worst scare I ever had in all the time I was taking theatre pics was in the Sheridan. It had been empty for a long time, and I found that one of the side doors was open. As you can see in the pics, the auditorium still looked halfway decent, but the lobby was a wreck; I think there had been a fire, and it was absolutely littered with garbage… including syringes here and there. I had been in there for ten or fifteen minutes, and was down in the lower level of the lobby when I heard a REALLY pissed-off voice up above me start shouting: “Yo, Mike! Mike!” I decided that Mike’s friend and Mike probably didn’t want me there, and got the hell out as fast as I could.

Incidentally, in the early 80s there was another theatre right down the street; it was either a strip club or an adult theatre. At that time, the Sheridan was called the Palacio, and I think the other theatre was called the Sheridan. It was just south of the Sheridan L stop, and I believe it later became a Mexican grocery. Maybe someone else here would know something about that one?

Coolness, thanx. It was irking me what they changed the name to for awhile now.

I was wondering if anyone knew what the other Sheridan Road theater on the north side is now called. The one located near Loyola University. I rememer at one point it was referred to as “The 400” but I believe the name has changed since.

Richard-
I hadn’t seen your message. That is an unusal problem. If there are a number of photos, I would suggest first putting them in a .zip compressed file. Then use a service like www.yousendit.com to host the file, and send an e-mail with the link. I would guess it would be a problem with the attachments. Did I send you my Mode photos?

Hi Richard
Sorry, I don’t have any suggestions…Brian sent me photos of the demolition of the MODE cinema without a hitch. I’ll ask my PC hacks if they can think of something that might solve the problem.
Charles

Hi Richard!
Please send the photos to
Thanks in advance.