The ornate two-story exterior facade of the Village Theater/Germania Theater has been saved and reconstructed. A Designated Chicago Landmark since 2009, the façade of the Village Theater has been carefully incorporated into the new adjacent residential development with the permission of the City and the Commission on Chicago Landmarks. It is located on the Gold Coast at 1550 N. Clark Street adjacent to the Designated Chicago Landmark Germania Club Building.
As an important priority of Preservation Chicago’s public testimony before the Commission on Chicago Landmarks, the historic facade will now serve as the prominent principal entry to the new development behind and will be a celebrated primary focus of residents, visitors, neighbors and the general public in the years to come. Earlier iterations of the redevelopment plans reduced this lovely historic facade a utilitarian secondary entry flanked by small retail tenants.
Originally called the Germania Theater, and later called the Globe, the Village Theatre was one of the best-surviving first generation movie theaters in Chicago. Designed by German-born architect Adolph Woerner for motion picture use, the building was completed in 1916 and was part of a theater chain operated by Herman L. Grunbiner. This brick and terra cotta-clad building is a mix of Classical Revival and Renaissance Revival styles, incorporating Germanic symbolism, such as the two-barred Cross of Lorraine. (Landmarks Division, City of Chicago)