Majestic Theatre - Streator, Illinois
The Majestic hosted performances by several well-known stars, such as Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker and Eva Tanguay.
The Majestic Theater in Streator, Illinois is more than a historic building—it is a dormant community asset with the potential to become a powerful engine for arts education, downtown revitalization, tourism, and local economic growth. Funding support will help restore and activate this landmark so it can once again serve residents, visitors, performers, students, and small businesses throughout the region.
Restoring the Majestic will preserve an irreplaceable cultural landmark with a remarkable performance legacy. The theater once welcomed celebrated entertainers including Groucho Marx, Jack Benny, Ed Wynn, Eddie Cantor, Sophie Tucker, and Eva Tanguay. With the right investment, that legacy can become a living platform for new concerts, film screenings, festivals, workshops, student showcases, first-run movies, and community events.
The project also creates a practical workforce and education pathway through collaboration with Here and Again Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to promoting arts and entertainment education and employment opportunities. Local artists and emerging talent can gain hands-on experience in a working venue, open for national acts through the Song + Story program, build relationships with experienced professionals, and develop skills that support employment, contract work, entrepreneurship, and continued education in the creative economy.
Investment in the Majestic is also investment in downtown Streator. A restored, active theater can draw audiences from a 50-mile radius, increasing foot traffic for nearby restaurants, hotels, gas stations, shops, and service providers. As an anchor for destination development, the Majestic can strengthen community pride, improve quality of life, attract complementary private investment, and demonstrate how historic preservation can become a practical strategy for long-term economic self-sufficiency.
Funding support will help move this project from preservation need to public benefit. By contributing to the restoration and activation of the Majestic Theater, funders can help save a historic Streator landmark while investing in arts access, youth and workforce development, small-business activity, tourism, and the continued renewal of the downtown core.
The Majestic Theatre was designed by famed architects Rapp and Rapp
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
C. W. & George L. Rapp, commonly known as Rapp & Rapp, was an American architectural firm famed for the design of movie palaces and other theatres. Active from 1906 to 1965 and based in Chicago, the office designed over 400 theatres, including the Chicago Theatre (1921), Bismarck Hotel and Theatre (1926) and Oriental Theater (1926) in Chicago, the Five Flags Center (1910) in Dubuque, Iowa and the Paramount Theatres in New York City (1926) and Aurora, Illinois (1931).
The named partners were brothers C. Ward Rapp (1860–1926) and George L. Rapp (1878–1941), sons of a builder and natives of Carbondale, Illinois. Their Chicago practice is not to be confused with the Trinidad, Colorado practice of their brothers Isaac H. Rapp (1854–1933) and William M. Rapp (1863–1920) or the notable Cincinnati architects George W. Rapp and Walter L. Rapp, to whom they were not related.
Cornelius Ward Rapp was born December 26, 1860. In the 1880s he moved to Chicago, where he worked for architect Cyrus P. Thomas. In 1889, the two formed the partnership of Thomas & Rapp.[1] This was dissolved in 1895, when both opened independent offices. Rapp's major projects over the next eleven years included Altgeld Hall (1895–96) and Wheeler Hall (1903–04) at what is now Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Coles County Courthouse (1898–99) in Charleston.[2] His father was superintendent of construction for both Carbondale buildings.[3] Rapp was an independent practitioner until 1906, when he formed a partnership with his younger brother, George L. Rapp.[4]
George Leslie Rapp was born February 16, 1878. He was educated in the School of Architecture of the University of Illinois, graduating in 1899. He then followed his brother to Chicago, where he joined the office of architect Edmund R. Krause. Of the projects completed by Krause during Rapp's employment, the best known was the Majestic Theatre, now the CIBC Theatre. After seven years with Krause he joined his brother to form the firm of C. W. & George L. Rapp, commonly known as Rapp & Rapp. Following early success with the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa, the new firm quickly specialized in theatres. In 1917 they began working with the Balaban & Katz chain of movie theatres, a relationship leading to the construction of many early movie palaces. In 1926 Paramount Pictures bought a controlling interest in Balaban & Katz, after which the Rapp office gained a national practice. C. Ward Rapp died the same year, leaving his brother to head the firm. The firm diversified its practice away from theatres during the 1930s, and designed a variety of commercial and industrial projects.[4] During this period Rapp was joined by Mason Gerardi Rapp, son of his elder brother William M. Rapp. After George L. Rapp's retirement in 1938, Mason G. Rapp succeeded to the practice. After the death of his uncle in 1941 he renamed the firm Rapp & Rapp, which had always been its common name. In 1965 Rapp retired, and the firm was dissolved.[4] Mason G. Rapp died in 1978.[5]
The Rapp brothers were among a group of highly influential American theatre architects, which also included Thomas W. Lamb of New York City and John Eberson of Chicago.[4] They were responsible for the design of some 400 theatres, most of which were built in the 1920s. They designed many movie palaces, including a number of atmospheric theatres, which utilized romantic architectural elements to evoke specific times and places. Their only surviving atmospheric theatre in Chicago is the Gateway Theatre, now the Copernicus Center, completed in 1930. If murals were to be included in the theatres, Louis Grell of Chicago was commissioned to paint them.
Many of the theatres and other buildings designed by the Rapp brothers have been listed on the United States National Register of Historic Places.
Will Rogers Theatre Post Card.
Majestic Theatre Post Card
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