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The Abandoned Uptown Theatre

By Alex in Travel & Places on Jan 18, 2009 at 12:21 am



Photo: Second City Warehouse [Flickr]

Neatorama reader lir wrote an interesting account of the abandoned Uptown Theatre in Chicago. The ornate theater, the second largest in the United States, has been abandoned and boarded up since 1980 because the high cost of upkeep and repair:

The theatre is called the Uptown Theatre. It was built by Balaban and Katz, a company started by four Chicagoans who built, owned and operated dozens of theatres and movie palaces from the 1920’s to the 1970’s. It was designed in a Spanish Baroque style by Rapp and Rapp – the same who built the Chicago Theatre on State Street four years before. It was built in 1925 with 4,381 seats (only the Radio City Music Hall is larger), a five story main lobby and two other side lobbies, an eight story facade, a large Wurlitzer organ, and millions worth of marble statuary and oil paintings. Silent films with full orchestras were the original entertainment at the theatre, but since its opening the theatre has been a stage for musicals, concerts, television shows, company meetings…

Unfortunately, due to the less then perfect reputation the area has had for a while, the cost of upkeep, its size, and from competition with the Riviera and Aragon, the Uptown started to sell off parts of itself, starting with the organ, and continuing with much of the interior decorations to pay for the care of the place. In the 1970’s, the Uptown was used as a large concert venue, with evidently a very memorable show by Bruce Springsteen taking place there in 1980. It was about this time that the theatre was sold, boarded up, and while plans with what exactly to use the massive ornately archaic and deteriorating structure for were being formed, water pipes froze and burst inside, causing severe damage. (Source)

Undercity.org, a website dedicated to exploration of abandoned and hidden urban sites, has a fascinating gallery of the Uptown Theatre: Link | Uptown Theatre photoset at Flickr by Second City Warehouse


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COMMENT
  1. erin
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 1:50 am

    WOW. I live within walking distance of the Uptown Theater, knew it's rich history,and never had a chance to see the inside. It is a treasure. Over the years several companies have tried to open it up again (one is trying to now, not so successfully)--it always comes down to money. Not nearly enough of it. Maybe this forgotten shrine to Hollywood should ask for a little help from the gods of celluloid? Good publicity AND a tax break? Hollywood eats that stuff up!

  2. lir
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 3:25 am

    Alex, I'm glad you posted this up here!

    It's Jam Productions, who owns the Riviera, that's just bought it now. If only I had about 40 million...

    I really hope this place is fixed up and opened for business at some point in the near future - at least next ten years or so. I'd love to work there in some capacity, even if it's just as an usher (which I do right now at the Chicago Theatre).

    There's also a documentary from 2006 on the place called Uptown: Portrait of a Palace, if anyone is interested.

  3. SparkS
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 3:45 am

    I second that WOW! I hope it can be saved. Maybe even turned into a place that can earn a decent profit. I am a huge fan of saving landmarks. They are a part of our nations history. Once they are destroyed so a parking lot can take their place they are gone forever.

    What a fabulous setting for the Phantom of the Opera movie to be shown there. The one from 1925, same year this theater was built. Give me goose bumps thinking about it.

  4. ZoSo
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 1:35 pm

    That looks like the theater from the ending of 'The Prestige'.

  5. ThrowoutBearing
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 2:10 pm

    I hope they have hobo stab insurance.

  6. Rocky Rook
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 7:16 pm

    So beautiful and mysterious.

  7. HollywoodBob
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    I've always had an affinity for theatres, and seeing a place as beautiful as this abandoned makes my heart ache.

  8. Hillary
    Jan 18th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    Purdue University's Elliot Hall of Music is larger than both the Uptown Theatre and Radio City Music Hall. It has 6,025 seats.
    I'm not sure if that makes it the largest in the country, but it definitely makes the Uptown Theatre at most third largest.
    Fascinating article, regardless! I wonder if it's haunted...

  9. lir
    Jan 19th, 2009 at 3:42 am

    Hillary,

    The Elliot Hall of Music is larger (and I'd imagine that there are larger theatres then both the Uptown and Radio out there). However, the difference is in the classification/original use between the theatres.

    The Uptown and Radio were built as movie palaces, i.e. to show films in outrageously ornate buildings, whereas Elliot wasn't originally built for movies.

    And if the Uptown was haunted...that would be awesome.

  10. Jomark Osabel
    Jan 21st, 2009 at 1:09 am

    It looks grand and at the same time spooky.

  11. gregory
    Jan 22nd, 2009 at 6:07 pm

    theater de los vampires anyone?

  12. arfies
    Jan 23rd, 2009 at 1:32 am

    Cleveland's similarly grand Playhouse Square went through decades of deterioration and closings in the 1960s and 1970s, when the formerly beautiful Beaux Arts theaters (used for movies) were to be razed and turned into a parking lot. In the 1970s, Cleveland truly was a dump (hence the "burning river" jokes). Fortunately, the 1980s and 1990s saw incredible fund-raising and subsequent renovation, and the place is GORGEOUS now, showing touring plays instead of movies (though the occasional special film is shown) and concerts. It was one of my favorite field trip destinations as a child, and the nonprofit (!) project revitalized the downtown area. If Cleveland can do it, Chicago certainly can.

  13. uptownjen
    Aug 13th, 2009 at 10:49 pm

    The Uptown was built for movies...Eliott was built for music. It is, size-wise, bigger than Radio City Music Hall!

  14. Bart
    Aug 23rd, 2009 at 10:09 am

    Wow, what a great place!

    Would love to walk around there to make some pics.

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