Wednesday, March 12, 2008

The Atlantic Theater, or what's left of it

This gem of a building is located in the center of the 26th Street commercial district, in the core of the Little Village neighborhood. The area is a lot like Pilsen, but without all that pesky gentrification. There are no condos or hip coffee shops here, but you can find a wrought iron company and a place selling live poultry. And bridal shops. Lots of bridal shops.

Former Atlantic Theater

The building today is called the Atlantic Mall, but from its commandingly lush terra cotta ornament, it fairly obviously used to be a theater -- the Atlantic Theater, unsurprisingly, built in 1917.

Former Atlantic Theater

It was gutted for a "mall" in the mid-1990s, sadly. The inside today doesn't look like much. But the facade remains a centerpiece for the busy 26th Street corridor.

Former Atlantic Theater

Link: The Atlantic Theater at Cinema Treasures

4 comments:

Christian Herman said...

love this blog! just spent an hour reading through. don't ever stop.

Anonymous said...

I love this theater. It still looks good.

k of c said...

I'm always meaning to get photos around there. When it's good weather for biking through the boulevards connecting the parks, I suppose.
I thought there was a former theater on Cermak--I don't know if that's another one, or if this one on 26th is what I'm thinking of.

Jacob said...

Yeah, there is also the former Marshall Square Theater at Cermak and Marshall Blvd, now the Apollo 2000.