What You Can Do
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11 Most Endangered
Uptown Theater
Year Listed: 1996
Location: Chicago , Illinois
Current Status: Favorable
Threat: Deterioration, Neglect
Significance
Covering most of a city block with its façade soaring eight stories into the sky, the lavish Uptown Theatre entertained Chicagoans for decades. In 1981, the Uptown showed its last movie, and since then the abandoned theater has suffered from extensive water damage and vandalism. Despite the deterioration, the theater remains structurally sound.
Updates
The Uptown Theater remains in escrow, with no immediate resolution in sight. However, the City of Chicago has attempted to market the building to potential developers, although with little success up to this point . The City has also allotted considerable funding toward an assessment of the exterior masonry with Wiss Janney Elstner, and they have done some exterior stabilization work to prevent further deterioration of the walls until the legal battle with the current owners is resolved.
In July 2008, Chicago-based JAM Productions purchased the UPTOWN THEATRE,
The real estate developer plans to restore and renovate the historic Uptown Theatre.
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