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Our thanks to Dan
Orr, Wanatah Indiana, for contributing
these photos, and our apologies for the time it took to get these
up.
"I love Gary architecture," writes Dan. "I
am using a Sony F505 with a Carl Ziess lens. I like it because
it has a 5X zoom, and I can get a lot closer to some of the architectural
elements that I like to shoot."
Mr. Orr's photos show some of the beautiful details that can
still be seen in that building--the painted ornamentation on
the sides of each row of seats, the still intact wall frescoes,
the high ceiling, the (formerly) grand staircase.
This is the last surviving movie "palace" in Gary.
There is only operating movie palace in all of Northwest Indiana;
the Illiana Hotel
and Hoosier Theater in Whiting.
Back in 1987, three Gary doctors tried to breathe life into
the Palace, which was closed at the beginning of 1972, and had
several aborted rebirths since then. The doctors purchased it
at a tax sale for $30,000. The doctors were William E. Washington,
Keshadvd Aggarwal and Shreyes Desai. The three planned to invest
between $500,000 and one million dollars to renovate the theater,
the adjoining restaurants and storefronts and 27 apartments through
their corporation, the Gandhi-King Corp. For a short time there
was a restaurant in one of the storefronts of the theater building
but that eventually closed up. Now the theater continues to decay.You
can read about the effort by the physicians to buy the theater
in the February 9, 1987 Gary edition of the Post Tribune.
Some people would doubtless argue that the people of Gary,
Indiana don't deserve a building like this, properly restored.
That they would not appreciate it, would not take care care of
it, and would not patronize it. We don't buy this argument. Besides,
wasn't the convention center, the Miss America Pageant, the casinos
and now the Gary baseball stadium an effort to get people from
outside the city to come to Gary? What a lovely attraction this
would be. As it is, there is nothing for people to do in downtown
Gary if they do come. So the building continues to decay, as
the city pours casino profits into new (and redundant) housing
complexes elsewhere in the downtown area.
Site visitor Cynthia had some interesting questions and ideas
She writes: Could the Palace Theatre in Gary be successfully
converted into a stage theatre that would host a company like
the African American Continuum Theatre in Washington, DC, and
if so, would it attract large enough social and civic interest
and audiences to be financially sustainable, if not profitable?
Could the renovation of the building also provide opportunities
for historic, "green" building and energy efficiency
grants, funding and assistance?
And would it be possible to expect representatives the city,
its arts and cultural organizations and the schools and businesses
of Gary provide interest, participation, and in the case of businesses
and the city (and state), sponsorship for theater's productions,
exhibits, classes and other activities?
Period postcard shows The Palace shortly after it
was built in the 1920s. It and the Elks Club Building shown in
the foreground in this picture (now a city government building)
are still standing.
The Palace and the building shown in the postcard
above seen from another angle in this modern-day picture by Dan
Orr. At far right is the old Sears department store building,
also in use by Gary city government.
For the Miss America pageant, which was hosted in
Gary and which included notables such as Donald Trump and Martha
Stewart, a ticket office agent was painted on the wood boarding
up the ticket office window to "dress it up."
Naturally, after the pageant was over, all this was
forgotten about, and the false windows have started to fall off.
Notice the holes punched in the Italianate tower of the Theater.
One preservationist has theorized that scavengers stole the terra
cotta ornamentation off the building. That pole propping up one
side of the tower to keep the whole thing from collapsing seems
to lend credence to that theory.
Box office.
Detail of the old painted plaster ornamentation.
Arched entryway from the lobby to the theater.
Writes photographer Dan Orr, "I spent a lot of time there
in my younger years, in the 60's. I became physically sick, when
after more than thirty years, I saw the inside. It was an incredible
place in its day."
An example of what years of neglect will do to a structure.
Some ornamental facing has fallen from the walls. Quite possibly,
the terra cotta ornamentation that was apparently stolen from
the Italianate tower of the building allowed water to get into
the building, causing this damage. The Palace must have been
quite grand as originally built.
The interior of the theater mixes Moorish (as seen
in these arches) and Italian architectural motifs.
Note the painted ornamentation on the sides of each
row of seats.
Ceiling shot shows the richness of detail.
Still-intact wall frescoe depicting an Italian scene
gives a hint of the glories of the structure as originally built.
Outdoor walkway between two parts of the large building.
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