Unique Theater
File:500 Block Minneapolis Plat.JPG
The Unique Theater was an 830-seat vaudeville theater, built in 1904 on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was built in the Renaissance Revival style, and situated between the Hennepin Center for the Arts and the West Hotel.
The hotel catered to a family audience with daily performances priced at ten or twenty cents.{{cite book|title=The History of Hennepin Center for the Arts|last=Balcom|first=Thomas|publisher=Mill City History Associates|year=1989|pages=5|location=Minneapolis, Minnesota}}
History
The theatre was used as a morgue after the West Hotel caught on fire next door.
Charlie Chaplin performed at the Unique very early in his career.{{cite web|url=http://cinematreasures.org/theater/4635/|title=Unique Theater|last=Krefft|first=Bryan|publisher=Cinema Treasures|access-date=2007-12-22}}
When vaudeville declined in the 1920s, however, the theater became a single-screen movie theater, built in the Renaissance Revival style.
The theatre was torn down in 1943 after being called a "menace to the public" due to poor structural integrity.{{cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/182693429/|title=It's the 'Last Curtain' for Unique Theater|first=Joe|last=McDermott|date=July 18, 1943|publisher=Minneapolis Star-Tribune}} Following demolition, the lot it had occupied was repurposed as a parking lot.{{cite web|url=http://mndance.org/contact/map_directions.html|title=Map & Directions|publisher=Minnesota Dance Theatre & The Dance Institute|access-date=2007-12-22}}
(This was planned to be occupied by part of a Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center,
{{cite web|url=http://www.mnshubert.org/Release.html |title=Minnesota Shubert Center receives $11 million from Legislature |date=2007-05-22 |access-date=2007-12-23 |publisher=Minnesota Schubert Performing Arts and Education Center |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120180524/http://www.mnshubert.org/Release.html |archive-date=November 20, 2008 }}
which was realized near the end of that century—though that eventual result entailed construction of a new building, which was—years later, without having opened to the public—raised from its foundation, and moved several blocks away, by extraordinary measures.
References
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{{Movie theaters in Minneapolis}}
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Category:Theatre in Minneapolis
Category:Cinemas and movie theaters in Minnesota
Category:Former cinemas in the United States
Category:Theatres completed in 1904
Category:Demolished theatres in the United States
Category:1904 establishments in Minnesota
Category:Buildings and structures demolished in 1943