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.



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.



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.



Link: The Atlantic Theater at Cinema Treasures