Located at 7616-20 South Cottage Grove Avenue I just new this current church was once an old movie house, but off and on I have checked out the Cinema Treasures website with no clue as to approximate address or even a name. I could drive down Cottage Grove an any given day and would know that it currently houses a church, but I just figured it had a previous life as a theater.
In fact I found the name of this theater on this website Cinema Tour. You can check the scene out below courtesy of Google Street view.
The beauty of this blog is that is that I can find these treasures through the internet and then be able to present them to you as if they could be treasures to the community if there was a way to utilize them as such. Indeed if there was a way to find the necessary resources (I like to use the term, capital). To be able to make this place into say a venue for some type of entertainment use certainly takes money, especially if this means rehabilitation.
In fact I ran into this place when I was looking for any information on the Central Park Theater located on the west side at 3535 W. Roosevelt Rd. Just like the former Grove Theater, this old movie house was also converted into a church. According to the accounts I have found the pastor at House of Prayer Chuch a Rev. Dr. Lincoln Scott seems to value this place and is looking for ways to not only rehab this building for use not only as a house of worship, but also as an entertainment venue as well.
Over five years ago a film festival event was actually held there. In this recent clip of Forgotten Chicago, WTTW's Jeffrey Baer tours the inside of the old Central Park Theater. In addition to exploring old movie houses around the city, well movie palaces!
Well almost 20 years too late, it seems like it was a mistake to demolish the Rhodes theater. It seems that way because there's nothing on the land now. If it was viable and I will say that it was because it continued to operate into the 80s (it was built in the 1930s) it probably could have used a fix up if someone was willing to spare the expense.
Anyway this is just another treasure in our community to be mindful of!
Dispatches from Chicago's south side.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
2 comments:
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Most of the neighborhood theaters like the Rhodes gave way to the wrecking ball. Mostly because the communities wanted to stop these buildings from becoming nightclubs. Also, look up theaters at 79th and 95th Ashland which are both churches but once were movie theaters.
ReplyDeleteI've been to both the former theaters on 79th and Ashland as well as 95th and Ashland. Either for church services or graduations. I suppose I understand the concerns regarding nightclubs or even those that concern more "prurient" interests, but I'd rather a church take up space in these places than for them to be torn down. Especially if they could eventually become community assets.
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