McVickers Theater

Category: Arts and Culture

In 1857, James McVicker opened a theater to bring "legitimate" theater and opera to Chicago. Later, the theater would also present minstrel shows, which historians have described as a key part of northern urban working-class culture during the nineteenth century. The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 destroyed the original building, McVicker rebuilt the theater -- shown in the attached photo (Chicago History Museum, DN - 0000483) -- at the same site. In 1922, this version of McVicker's was demolished and replaced by an even grander theater. By the middle of the twentieth century, McVickers was a movie theater. The final incarnation was demolished in the 1980s.