Daily Herald opinion: The York Theatre in Elmhurst a suburban success story
The York Theatre will celebrate its 100th year in downtown Elmhurst this weekend.
It’s an incredible milestone for a building that hearkens back to a long-gone era when grand movie houses with large marquees were common fixtures in suburban downtowns.
The York opened its doors on Labor Day weekend in 1924 and has served as a gathering place for generations of movie lovers.
“When you listen to what this place has meant to people, it’s really heartwarming,” Classic Cinemas CEO Chris Johnson told our Rick West. “The building is more than just a movie theater. It’s a piece of Elmhurst’s history.”
In a story published Monday, West wrote about how the York debuted three years before the first “talkie” movies. Initially designed in the Spanish Revival style, the building got its Art Modern facade through a project in 1937.
While downtown movie palaces thrived for decades in the suburbs, they eventually faced challenges, including competition from the rise of multiplexes.
The York was no different. By the early 1980s, it had fallen into disrepair and was showing second-run movies. Then Willis and Shirley Johnson came along to breathe new life into the structure.
The Johnsons started Classic Cinemas in 1978 when they began operating the Tivoli Theatre in a downtown Downers Grove. The couple bought the York in 1982.
Chris Johnson says the York “wasn’t in great shape” when his father and stepmother purchased it.
“There was water damage, and it was a mess,” Johnson said. “So we cleaned it up and got it functional. Then we started diving in a little more to the aesthetic, trying to recapture the magic of the original.”
In his story, West chronicled how the single-screen York was divided in the early 1990s to have three screens. Subsequent expansion projects on the north and south sides of the building grew the movie theater to its current 10 screens.
While Classic Cinemas worked to preserve the history of the building, it also added amenities that modern-day moviegoers have come to expect, including stadium seating and improved picture quality and sound.
As a result of that evolution, the York Theatre is thriving along with the Tivoli and the Arcada Theatre in St. Charles.
Unfortunately, other old-style theaters have not had the same success. Some, like the DuPage Theatre in Lombard, are long gone.
One notable building remains in limbo. The Wheaton Grand Theater opened in 1925 along Hale Street in the heart of downtown Wheaton and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2005. But it closed in 2006 and has sat empty ever since.
So, as the Wheaton Grand is approaching its 100th birthday next year, we hope it eventually gets the same kind of care and attention the York received. Because, while we are grateful to have several historic theaters still operating in the suburbs, it can’t hurt to give another one a second act.