Loop Theatre

N State St Chicago IL

Information for this tour was contributed by Bryan Krefft.

The two-story block-sized (and blocky-looking) 1940 building the former Loop Theater was housed in, next door to the Chicago Theater, has been used for retail since the early-to-mid 1980s. The space that held the Loop is still faintly recognizable as a tiny former theater, with part of its marquee still intact (but painted over black) and if you look thru the often-open front door, the store area was the former little lobby space of the Loop (though with its plywood walls, the Art Moderne original decor has either been long since removed or covered up. The bulk of the building is a Walgreens store).

Today, all but one of the retail stores (electronics shop, wig store, etc.) are gone, and the building looks pretty seedy, considering where it's located (again, next to the greatest movie palace in Chicago, across the street from the former State-Lake Theater, now tv studios and offices for the ABC network's Chicago affiliate and kitty-corner across the street from the Siskel Film Center.)

The whole block where the Walgreens building is located was once the site of one of Chicago's earliest and most famous skyscrapers, the Masonic Temple, which was built in 1891 and razed in 1939 but had one of the first "skydecks" for tourists in Chicago, which are now big tourist draws at the Sears Tower & the Hancock Center. The Masonic Building also housed a small theater, the Temple, around the turn of the 20th century, a legit/vaudeville house, which was closed during the 1920s.

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Last featured 12/2/2003. Last edited 1/1/2006.

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