Valencia Theater, 1560 Sherman Avenue, Evanston, Illinois.

The Evanston Theater

At 1560 Sherman Avenue, where James Carney had lived since 1884 in the old Willard House. The Evanston Amusement Company built the Evanston Theatre in 1910-11. Designed by the Chicago architect John Edmund Oldaker Pridmore (1867-1940), the $65,000 ($2,058,000 today) theatre opened on August 21, 1911.

Featuring "polite vaudeville," the 950-seat theatre changed its bill on Mondays and Thursdays and had matinees on Wednesdays and Saturdays. The interior decoration was by the H. Neilson Company, the carpets and draperies by the Hasselgren Studio, and the furniture and fixtures from Marshall Field & Company. 

After a fire that caused a loss of about $35,000 ($822,600 today) in December 1917. It reopened as the Evanston Strand Theater in 1918. In December 1922, it reopened as The New Evanston Theater. 

Renamed The Valencia Theater was completely rebuilt in September 1932 with Art Deco decor. It was taken over by Balaban & Katz. It later was operated under B & K’s successor chains, ABC Theatres and finally, Plitt Theatres.

The Valencia was razed in 1975 to make way for the American Hospital Supply building, replaced in the early-1980s by an eighteen-story building that now houses the world headquarters of Rotary International.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.