Badger Theatre

LouRugani on January 26, 2026 at 6:24 pm

(RACINE JOURNAL-TIMES, Friday, March 21, 1952)

Bloch Furniture Buys Badger Theater Building

The Badger Theater building, closed, with its equipment, by 421 Main St., has been sold to Warner Bros. theaters for $50, the Bloch Furniture Co. No sale price was announced. The theater chain bought the property from the Badger Improvement Co. after operating the movie house under lease for 14 years.

For nearly a half century the building has presented offerings of the vaudeville circuit and, more recently, the movies. A landmark in Racine’s amusement history, it is one of the oldest theaters in the city.

Theater Adjoins Blochs

The building adjoins the furniture store property. Max Grust, general manager of the furniture store said there were no immediate plans to use the building as part of the store, but that the auditorium space which fronts on Lake Ave. would probably be converted into a warehouse. A 10 foot wide frontage on Main St. was the entrance and lobby of the theater.

In 1947 the building was purchased, with its equipment, for $50,000 to $55,000, according to revenue stamps attached to the deed.

Closed Since June

Originally known as the Bijou, the theater was among the first downtown vaudeville houses in Racine. It was later renamed the State and then the Badger. For many years it was operated as a movie house by the late Owen McKivett. At one time it was owned by the Fox Midwesco Theater interests.

Warner Bros. Theaters closed the building last June. It was never reopened. It is the second downtown theater to be closed, and the first which will be converted to other uses.

rivest266 on November 14, 2017 at 4:25 pm

Opened as State on April 23rd, 1926