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Congress Theater

The Congress Theater (present day)
Address	2135 N. Milwaukee Avenue Chicago, Illinois United States
Coordinates	41.92°N 87.69222°W / 41.92; -87.69222
Designation	Chicago Landmark
Type	theater
Capacity	4,500
Current use	live music venue
Construction
Built	1926
Years active	1926-present
Architect	Fridstein & Company
Website
http://www.congresschicago.com/
Chicago Landmark
Designated	July 10, 2002

The Congress Theater in Chicago was built in 1926 for the movie theater chain of Lubliner & Trinz. It is a surviving example of a movie palace and is currently used for live shows. It currently has a 4,500 person capacity for live-music shows, and could seat 2,900 movie patrons. It was named a Chicago Landmark in 2002.

History

The Congress Theater opened on September 5, 1926. It was opened in Chicago’s developing North Side in an area called Logan Square at 2135 North Milwaukee Avenue. Initially, it was built and intended for showing movies, but besides that, the theater was also a Vaudeville house on the prestigious Orpheum Circuit, comprised of theaters throughout the country. Built just before the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression, It still operated throughout the period. The entertainment industry was one of the only industries that experienced expansion during the Great Depression.

It was designed in 1925 for Lubliner & Trinz, who operated one of Chicago's largest movie theater chains during the 1920's. The architect was Fridstein & Co., an architectual-engineering company whose other designs include the Belden-Stratford and Shoreland hotels and two other movie theaters, the Harding and Tower (both demolished). Lubliner & Trinz sold their theaters to Balaban & Katz, a rival theater company, in 1929. The congress continued to show movies under the management of this and other companies through the 1980s. In 1990 the theater was bought by Ray Spasenovski (a real estate agent with the United Realty Group) and his partner James P. Peterson.

Events

The theater has hosted everything from weddings, The International Mr. Leather, experimental music shows, movie festivals, talent shows, visual and other fine arts, movie locations, and special events. Oprah Winfrey used the lobby to shoot her intro of her daily TV show. Located at the northeast corner of Milwaukee and Rockwell Avenues, the Congress Theater is a massive building covering a quarter of a city block. The theater auditorium itself, a massive brick presence sits at the back of the lot. A lobby plus 17 stores and 56 apartments, wraps around the auditorium.

Construction and Layout

The Congress Theater is built of brown brick with white terra-cotta trim. The theater entrance is dramatic with a four-story terra-cotta façade detailed with a Classical Revival-style pediment and Italian Renaissance-style windows, pilasters, and low-relief ornament. Decorative signboard frames flank multi-paned theater doors. The store-apartment sections are simply detailed with white terra-cotta window surrounds and decorative raised brickwork. In addition, white terra cotta is used to highlight the theater's secondary entrance facing Rockwell Avenue. The theater interior is lavish sequence of spaces, handsomely detailed with decorative stone- and plasterwork. Theatergoers enter a small outer vestibule with two marble-and-gilt iron box office booths. Beyond is the main lobby, a dramatic four-story space with arched ceiling decorated with Italian renaissance-style moldings. Black, gray and light brown marble is used for wainscoting, while the floor is composed of green and off-white marbleized terrazzo squares arranged in a checkerboard pattern. Two large iron-and-glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling, accompanied by smaller wall fixtures. At the far end of the main lobby, a grand staircase draws visitors through two doorways, ornamented with elaborated pediment doorframes that lead into a narrow inner lobby then the auditorium balcony. Flanking the staircase are two flat-arched passageways that lead to similar lobby serving the orchestra level. The 2094-seat auditorium, retaining its original color scheme of gold and burgundy, is dramatic in its expansive use of space. A large 55-foot-wide proscenium arch dominates the far wall, flanked by semi circular projecting bays originally containing organ pipes. (The organ was removed in the early 1930s) The orchestras level seats 2,114 while the encircling balcony has additional 790 seats. Arched niches ring the balcony, while a three-tiered saucer dome covers the entire ceiling. The auditorium is lavishly decorated with elaborate plaster- and metal work in the Italian Renaissance architectural style. Wall surfaces, including the dome, are thickly detailed with low-relief ornament such as foliate motifs, swags, urns, fans, and rosettes. Doorways into the balcony are set within frames finely detailed with spiral columns supporting decorative cornices. Original iron-and-glass light fixtures remain in place along the wall.

Recognition

The Congress Theater was designated a Chicago Landmark on July 10th, 2002. The Chicago Historic Resources Survey recognized the Congress Theater as “significant to the community” in 1996. It was included in Great American Movie Theaters, published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1987. The Theater Historical Society of America, a national organization devoted to theater history and preservation, has published two issues of its Marquee magazine (second quarter 1985 and first quarter 1992) featuring the Congress.

Accessibility

Traveling to the theater is easy via the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA). The building is within two blocks of the Blue Line train stations at California (& Milwaukee) and Western (& Milwaukee) which operate twenty four hours a day. The theater is also served by the following bus routes: #52 Kedzie/Calfornia, #56 Milwaukee, #73 Armitage, #49 Western. It is quick walk or bus ride from the METRA train station at Clybourn & Ashland on the Union Pacific District Northwest line to the Congress Theater. Exit the station to the south to transfer to the #73 Armitage bus going west on Cortland Ave. to the theater.

External Links

Photos of the Congress Theater: http://www.congresschicago.com/photos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congress_Theater