City Hall Square

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City Hall Square, Palace Music Hall, Erlanger Theater
Life Span: 1912-1962
Location: 127-139 N. Clark
Architect: Christian A. Eckstorm

Inter Ocean, April 7, 1911

GETS PERMIT TO ERECT NEW SKYSCRAPER THEATER
Work Begun on Twenty Story Structure to Be Erected by the City Hall Square Company.
The building permit for Chicago newest theater, at 127 and 139 North Clark street, was taken out yesterday by F. P. Nelson, vice president of the City Hall Square company. which will own the skyscraper in which the new playhouse is to be located.

Herman Fehr, theatrical manager, who operates the Princess and the Empire theaters in Chicago and also numerous other theaters in Milwaukee, St. Paul and Minneapolis, will have charge of the new theater after Jan, 1, 1912, when it is expected to be completed.

A twenty story fireproof office and theater building will be erected by the owners, to cost $1,000,000. Work already has been begun. By beginning at once the owners were not restricted to the height limitation of 200 feet in the new ordinance, as this provision does not become effective until after Sept. 1. C. A. Eckstrom is the architect for the building.

Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1911

Work on the City Hall Square building and theater, which will occupy the Trude-Leiter properties, at 127 to 139 North Clark street, opposite the county building, has been started. The caissons are being sunk, and the present structures will be torn down May 1.

The building will be twenty stories. The theater entrance and lobby will occupy the south portion of the lot, while the office building entrance will be at the north end. The exterior will be of blue Bedford stone below the fourth floor, with a highly polished granite base at the street level.

The entrance, corridors, and halls will be finished in Italian marble and ornamental bronze. The theater will seat about 1,400, and is expected to be ready in the spring of 1912. The architect is C. A. Eckstorm.

Chicago Tribune, April 23, 1911

Some day in the remote future, when Chicago becomes the theatrical producing center of the country, and the locale of musical comedy plots shifts from Broadway to Randolph street, there will be songs written and sung about our City Hall square. Perhaps it will be even worse than the foregoing.

Didn’t know we had a City Hall square? Surest thing. The streets which, surround the huge county building combined with the new city hall, consisting of strips of Randolph, Clark, Washington, and La Salle streets, now compose City Hall square. The title has not been licensed merely by writing a song about it. A new twenty-story skyscraper, on which work has begun at 127 to 135 North Clark street, will be known as the City Hall Square building. The theater it will contain also will flaunt that emblem a an incandescent sign.

Years ago, before the fire of ’71, the solid block now occupied to the last inch by the city and county business offices and the double barreled Democratic administration, was a sure enough “square” to send to the loved ones on a postcard. The ancient city hall, capped by a picturesque cupola, occupied only the center of the huge plot. It was surrounded by grass, trees, fountains, and a rail fence, on which the board of aldermen could whittle and chew plug cut on sunny days.

If the official intention to girdle the huge administration buildings with powerful electric candelabra is carried out City Hall square will indeed be imposing at night as well as day.

On all four sides of the “square” there is plenty to interest the tourist. On the Clark street side, for instance, is the real Chicago Rialto, centering under the canopy of the Grand Opera house. Along this row are vaudeville booking offices, song publishing firms and moving picture ateliers galore. At Clark and Randolph, also, is “Grape Angle,” this city’s edition of “Lobster Square.” On the Randolph street side Is the brilliant new Hotel Sherman and Power’s theater. The Washington street flank contain the Chicago Opera house and venerable ruin of the Orpheum Music hall, erstwhile a billposter’s paradise, but now the delight of all tourist sated with the ravaged forte and on the drais of Europe.

The type of humanity to be seen in City Hall square are numerous and varied. Not the least of these are the “Taxi 411” type, the largest city taxicab stand being located at the eastern edge of the County building in Clark street. Every night and on matines afternoons three sides of the “square” teems with automobiles and electric runabout. Look it over and you’ll feel proud of City Hall Square.

Chicago Tribune, December 23, 1911

CITY HALL SQUARE THEATER TO BE CALLED “THE PALACE.”
Playhouse Will Open in February with Pantomime and Other Music Hall
Novelties.
New Tork, Dec. 22.-(Special.)-The name of the new theater in the City Hall Square building, Chicago, was decided upon today and it will be known as the Palace-the name selected also for the house which will be erected here at Broadway and Forty-seventh street by the same managers, Martin Beok and Herman Fehr.

The policy of the theaters will be unique in America, and will be paterned after that of the Palace and Empire music halls in London.

Mr. Beck will import as a feature of the bill a musical pantomime to be staged under the direction of the famous John Tiller, producer of the Empire and Alhambra ballets in London, and he will also establish a stock dramatic company to play one act “masterpieces” and a stock operetta company for selections from musical plays.

Both will be organized with actors and singers of fame, who will alternate between the New York and the Chicago houses.

The Chicago theater will be opened in February. The scale of prices will range from $1.50 downward.

Chicago Examiner, January 24, 1912

1922 Chicago Central Business and Office Guide

City Hall Square Building
The City Hall Square Building occupies the premises Nos. 127 to 139 North Clark street, directly across from the County Building and City Hall. This location, in the heart of the Loop, makes office space in the building unusually desirable for lawyers, builders, architects, contractors, etc.

The building is a thoroughly modern twenty-story reproof office building, with a frontage of 111 feet on Clark street and a depth of 70 feet on Court place. with an open-light court in the rear 111 feet wide and 90 feet deep.

Unusually large elevators, with a speed of 600 feet per minute, and equipped with all the modern safety devices and electric signals, insure quick, reliable service.

A thoroughly modern system of steam vacuum heating with thermostat regulation is installed here.

The building was erected under the personal supervision of the architect, Mr. C. A. Eckstorm.

Chicago Tribune, September 27, 1926

This is the final week of the Palace Music-Hall as the name of the handsome theater opened in 1912 in the City Hall Square Building: that it is to be renamed the Erlanger Theater was made known nearly a year ago in The Tribune… Seats for the new Palace, to be opened next Monday, are on sale today.
F. B.

1927 “Wings” poster and Erlanger Building in 1929

Chicago Tribune, March 5, 1929

News this morning is that the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, which has for years carried on the Gilbert-Sullivan tradition in the British Isles, will devote a fort-night, starting the 18th, to Chicago in the Erlanger. The company was tentatively booked to open last night in the Blackstone; but that plan was dropped before the opening there of “The High Road.” The arrangement for the Chicago visit involves five of the operettas, to be given in this order:

Chicago Tribune, March 7, 1962

The Chicago Public Buildings Commission has acquired the first two of 14 parcels of property sought as the site for the new civic center in in the square block just east of the County building, Mayor Daley announced yesterday,

The commission will pay $2,215,000 for the two parcels.

$750,000 Purchase Price.
The commission will pay $1,750,000 for the City Hall Square building, 139 N. Clark st., which includes restaurants, stores, the Erlanger theater, and offices on upper floors. The land area is 17,000 square feet. The property is owned by the late Levi Leiter, Chicago merchant.

The commission will pay $765,000 for the 14 story Cunard building, 140 N. Dearborn st., with 4,000 square feet of land. The sellers are Edward Gold and Wimpy Grills, Inc., which Gold heads.

Chicago Tribune, March 10, 1962

Stage Note
Tonight’s farewell performance of “Bye Bye Birdie” marks the end of the Erlanger theater, soon to be demolished by the City Center (Richard J. Daley Center) project. Even so, the theater lasted longer than the bar next door to which its audience adjourned for drinks between acts. The bar was notified that it was out of business as soon as it became a part of city property.

tobey

City Hall Square

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