“One hundred years ago in October, a grand new theater opened on Division Street in the Austin neighborhood. The Ambassador Theatre had rows of large urns in rows atop its exterior walls and a dome soaring three stories high over the main entrance.
“Inside was even more ornate, with opulent ceilings above the main staircase, more than a dozen private box-seat balconies trimmed in colorful terra-cotta and a giant burst of decorative patterns rising about 40 feet above the stage. The Ambassador, built for both live acts and movies, could seat 3,500.
“A century later, the structure is still there, but the urns, the dome and most other historical elements are gone. A few details remain, hidden from the worshipers attending New Inspirational Baptist Church, which has occupied the building for four decades.
“The church’s sanctuary is sort of a box within the original box, between a pair of walls that make it about one-third the width of the old theater. The ceiling is low, less than one-third the theater’s height. That’s because “I couldn’t afford to heat all that space up above, the Rev. Andrew Griffin Sr., founder and pastor of New Inspirational Baptist Church, told WBEZ’s Reset.
“This spring, four decades after a former owner donated the theater building to the pastor, New Inspirational launched a fundraising campaign to raise $55,000 for a new roof.
“There’s a hole so big that exterior bricks started raining inside. The only thing keeping the objects from falling onto attendees is the plywood roof of the box-within-a-box that contains the worship space.
“The story of how a sumptuous neighborhood theater became a church struggling to install a new roof says a lot about how buildings evolve over time. This one has hosted stage shows, movies and softcore porn, taken the name of a football hero and eventually became a Black church that has lasted 40 years.
“Go beyond the church’s walls, and with a flashlight, the old theater’s remains appear. You can see the gold-trimmed edges of balconies, tall red pilasters or columns etched into the walls and a ceiling soaring 40 feet overhead. There’s a huge gash in the ceiling, and on rainy days, you can hear water dripping through it onto plastic sheeting, placed to prevent leaks into the sanctuary.” (Rodkin and Kumar, WBEZ Chicago, 6/30/25)
Read and read the full story at WBEZ Chicago
- What’s That Building? New Inspirational Baptist Church; The story of how a neighborhood theater became a church struggling to install a new roof says a lot about how buildings evolve over time, Dennis Rodkin and Aaryan Kumar, WBEZ Chicago, 6/30/25
- Ambassador Theatre, 5825 West Division Street, Chicago, Illinois. The Digital Research Library of Illinois History Journal