Our Pick
Posted on @rawstates
The Central Park Theater, the first air conditioned movie house in the world
1917
North Lawndale, Chicago, Illinois
Zol87 from Chicago, IL, USA · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Balaban and Katz opened their first theater here on Roosevelt Road in October 1917. Barney Balaban had worked at a cold storage company and had the auditorium built with mechanical refrigeration, which no theater anywhere had done before, and the chain advertised the cool air harder than it advertised the films. Rapp and Rapp designed the Spanish Revival building and went on to become the house architects for Balaban and Katz and then for Paramount. It stopped showing movies in 1971 and has been a house of worship since.
That was 1 of the hidden places.
Location: documented spot
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