Belleville, Illinois, Historic District with lots of photographs.

The city of Belleville was named by George Blair in 1814. Blair was born in 1760 and his father was born in Scotland. Blair donated an acre of his land for the Town Square and an additional 25 acres that adjoined the Square for the new County Seat, causing the county seat to be transferred from the village of Cahokia. 

Belleville was incorporated as a village in 1819 and became a city in 1850. It is said that Blair named the city Belleville (French for "beautiful city") because he believed that a French name would attract new residents. Since major immigration in the mid-19th century occurred following revolutions in Germany, most of the population is of German heritage.

After the failure of the German Revolution in 1848, many of the educated people fled their homeland. Belleville was the center of the first important German settlement in Illinois. By 1870, an estimated 90% of the city's population was either German-born or of German descent.

A Bird's Eye View of Belleville, Illinois, in 1867.

After the Civil War (1861-1865), Belleville became a manufacturing center; nails, printing presses, gray iron castings[1], agricultural equipment, and stoves were made there. The number of stoves produced and wealth generated from the stove foundry industry gave Belleville the moniker, "Stove Capital of the World." The State of Illinois’ first and last brewery was established there. Belleville was also Southern Illinois’ leading cigar revenue district. In 1868, Gustav Goelitz founded the company that is known today as "Jelly Belly."

An immense deposit (400,000 acres) of black coal was found in St. Clair County. By 1874, some farmers had become coal miners. One hundred shaft mines were in operation in and around Belleville. The coal brought the steam railroad to town, which allowed for the transport of many tons of coal to be shipped daily from Belleville to St. Louis, Missouri. Later, Belleville would have the first electric trolley in the state.

The first style of homes in Belleville was simple brick cottages, known locally as "German street houses" or "row houses." However, there is a great variety of architectural styles with American Foursquare, French Second Empire, Greek Revival, Gothic Revival, Italianate, Queen Anne, and Victorian. Over 700 properties are listed on the Belleville National Register Historic District. The "Old Belleville Historic District" was formed in 1974 and is the city’s first historic district. The city also had two more historic districts: "Hexenbukel" (est. 1991) and "Oakland" (est. 1995).

Belleville’s early German immigrants were scholarly, with most of them having graduated from German universities. They were nicknamed “Latin Farmers” because of this. In 1836, residents established the city’s public library. The Belleville Public Library is the state’s oldest, predating the Illinois State Library by three years. The German settlers also founded choral and dramatic groups as well as literary societies. Belleville was also home to one of the first kindergartens in the country.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

---

Belleville, Illinois, Historic District

---

[1] Gray Iron, or grey iron, is a type of cast iron that has a graphitic microstructure. It is named after the gray color of the fracture it forms, which is due to the presence of graphite. It is the most common cast iron and the most widely used cast material based on weight. It is used for housings where tensile strength is non-critical, such as internal combustion engine cylinder blocks, pump housings, valve bodies, electrical boxes, and decorative castings. Grey cast iron's high thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity are often exploited to make cast iron cookware and disc brake rotors.

The History of the Monroe Theater, 57 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL.

One of the more modestly-sized Loop theaters, seating 950, the Monroe Theater’s history goes back to 1900 when the Inter-Ocean Building was constructed on the site of the Columbia Theater, which had been destroyed in a fire. In 1919.

The Inter-Ocean Building was converted into a theater that opened on April 10th, 1920. It was originally operated by showman William S. Barbee and called Barbee’s Loop Theater, aka Barbee’s Theater.

Before Barbee's Theater, the Ascher Brothers had intended to build a 3000-seat theater in the Inter-Ocean building in June 1918. It would have been the first large multi-purpose theater and movie house in the Loop. This obviously fell through.

In 1922, Barbee sought to install a stage so that the theater could present vaudeville, but his plans were blocked by Chicago city officials due to the lack of sufficient emergency exits. The theater closed in May 1923, reportedly due to a lack of business. 

On September 1, 1923, the theater was reopened under new management with a new name Monroe Theater. 

The theater’s former owner, William S. Barbee filed for bankruptcy in October 1923, having incurred over $230,000 ($3,867,000 today) in debt with the theater.

In the 1930s or 40s, the entrance and interior to the building were given an Art Deco makeover. By the 1950s, they were showing sci-fi and horror films B-movies. In the early-1960s, the theater started showing adult films.

The Monroe Theatre closed in May 1977 and was demolished in July 1977. Part of the Xerox Center (today known as 55 West Monroe Building) is located on the site of the Monroe Theatre today.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.

Two Rialto Theatres, open same time 2 blocks from each other in Chicago's Loop.

The Rialto Theatre, 546 South State Street, Chicago, IL, in the Printer's Row neighborhood of the Loop community. (1906-1975) SEE BELOW

This was seemingly always a seedy joint. Opened in 1906 for the Jones, Linick & Schaefer circuit as the U.S. Music Hall, it was shut down briefly in 1916 for indecency, as it was always a burlesque house. In 1922 an abandoned baby was found there; in 1932, a rapist and killer were caught there; over the years, gambling was broken up, mob links were found, and it was shut down repeatedly.

By 1934 it had become the State-Harrison Theatre. By the mid-1940s, it had changed to a  burlesque theatre before the city shut it down at the end of 1954 for lewd conduct. By 1967 it was called the Rialto Theatre, probably for the associations people had with the old Rialto Theatre a couple blocks north, when it was shut down again.

It reopened in 1971. In November 1974, it closed briefly after being a victim of a series of coordinated bombings of Chicago adult movie houses - the Rialto Theatre, Follies Theatre, Newberry Theatre, and the Bijou Theatre were all victims. It soon reopened but was shut down for good a few months later in 1975 as part of a code crackdown that shut a number of adult theatres.

June 4, 1943 print ad.

Sandra Sexton, 1940s.

It’s the parade commemorating Movietime USA in the Loop in October of 1951. The Rialto Theatre is back to its original name and to burly shows as it is in the final throes of its long career in Chicago.

Circa 1951.

1924 photograph.

Circa 1953

For many years, a large two-level parking garage sat on the site of this theatre, but today, the University Center of Chicago is on the site with dormitories and retail space.

---

Rialto Burlesque Theatre, 336 South State Street, Chicago, IL, was located a couple of blocks away on South State Street, which was also started as a burlesque theatre. (1917-1953) 

The Rialto Theatre opened in 1917 as a venue for vaudeville and motion pictures, near the corner of State and Van Buren Streets.

The theatre was designed by the architectural duo of Marshall & Fox, who also designed the earlier legitimate Blackstone Theatre (now the Merle Reskin), the Blackstone Hotel, and later, Chicago’s famed Drake Hotel.

This mid-sized venue was located directly across the street from the Neo-Classical style department store building that began its life as Rothschild’s, then the Davis Store, then Goldblatt’s, and is today the Loop campus of DePaul University. By 1930 it was Minsky’s Rialto Theatre presenting burlesque.

From November 7, 1931, it was renamed "Loop End Theatre" presenting vaudeville & movies. From September 1, 1944, it was the "Downtown Theatre," it later reverted back to the "Rialto Theatre" name and closed on December 31, 1953.

It was demolished in January 1954. It was replaced by a handful of small one-story retail stores (“taxpayers”), which in turn were also torn down in the late 1980s and early 1990s, replaced by Pritzker Park, which is on the site today.

Circa 1971

July 1941, John Vachon, Farm Security Administration.

Rialto Poster Box to the left of the Hotel Entrance. Circa 1970.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.