I wanted to learn more about this masterpiece of a building, so here are some fascinating facts about the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago.<\/p>\n
1. The architectural firm of Adler & Sullivan designed the building and the building is considered to be one of their most notable achievements.<\/p>\n
2. President Grover Cleveland\u00a0 visited Chicago on October 5, 1887 to lay the cornerstone of the building.<\/p>\n
3. The Auditorium Theater hosted the Republican National Convention in June 1888.<\/p>\n
4. It did not officially open to the public, however, until December 1889.<\/p>\n 5. The buzz around the opening of the theater helped Chicago secure the 1893 Colombian Exposition, also known as the Chicago World’s Fair, a major event for the Windy City.<\/p>\n 6. It was the site of the pageant “America” during the Exposition.<\/p>\n 7. When the theater opened, one of its unique features was individual chairs for each audience member. Most theaters at the time had gallery benches.<\/p>\n 8. Theodore Roosevelt delivered his Armageddon speech there in 1912.<\/p>\n 9. There are mosaics throughout the theater, and in 1889 records showed that there were 55 million mosaic tile pieces.<\/p>\n 10. Famous performers have consistently graced the stage span a wide range of styles, including John Philip Sousa, Anna Pavlova, Janis Joplin, B.B. King, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and the Grateful Dead.<\/p>\n 11. When the Great Depression gripped the country in the 1930’s, the building remained standing because tearing it down cost more than the value of the land.<\/p>\n 12. The Auditorium Theatre went bankrupt and closed in 1941, at which point the City of Chicago took it over.<\/p>\n 13. The building was converted to a servicemen’s center during World War II and the stage made into a bowling alley for the troops. More than 2.2 million troops passed through.<\/p>\n 14. In 1946, the newly formed Roosevelt University acquired the building. Due to a lack of renovation funds, it sat unused for twenty years.<\/p>\n 15. After a fundraising campaign, it reopened in 1967.<\/p>\n 16. When the theater opened, it was the largest structure in the U.S.<\/p>\n 17. The lobby is low and not ornate on purpose. Adler and Sullivan designed it following the “compression and release” theory that being in a small, tight space and would make the move into the gleaming six story auditorium that much more dramatic. This is a key element of Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs. He worked as a draftsman on the Auditorium Theatre.<\/p>\n 18. The U.S. Department of the Interior added the Auditorium Theatre to the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.<\/p>\n 19. The leafed ceiling arches are made of 24-karat gold.<\/p>\n 20. Today it seats 3,877 people.<\/p>\n 21. The theater did not have a patron elevator until 2012 as part of renovations.<\/p>\n 22. The Auditorium Theatre will host the NFL draft in April 30- May 2, 2015. It will be the first time in 51 years that the draft has been held in Chicago.<\/p>\n 23. The theater hosts more than 200 events per year, including music, dance, theater and religious services. You can find upcoming performances and events here.<\/p>\n 24. More than a quarter of a million people visit the theater every year.<\/p>\n 25. At its opening, the Auditorium Theatre was lauded as “the eighth wonder of the world.”<\/p>\n If you want to learn more, check out the Auditorium Theatre’s Historical Timeline<\/a> and on its website<\/a>.\u00a0 If you have a chance to see the Auditorium Theatre at Roosevelt University in person, it’s a place full of history and beauty that’s absolutely worth seeing.<\/p>\n YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Book review: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd<\/a><\/p>\n Please like Mom Factually on Facebook<\/a>.<\/strong> You can also find MF on Pinterest<\/a>, Twitter, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Auditorium Theatre of Roosevelt University is celebrating its 125th anniversary season, and the architectural gem of Chicago is ready for its close up. The gilded arches have so many stories to tell about the past and gleam with the promise of performances to come. My daughter and I were fortunate to attend the American […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=724"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9880,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724\/revisions\/9880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Image](\"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/FOR-WEB-aud-photo-steve-bailey-400x265.jpg\")
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