Biograph Theater Pushed for Landmark Status

CHICAGO-The Biograph Theater, where John Dillinger watched his last picture show, is being pushed for Chicago Landmark status. The theater opened 20 years before the 1934 shoout between FBI agents and Dillinger, an alleged bank robber who was at the top of the government’s “Most Wanted” list at the time of his death.

The two-story building at 2433-43 N. Lincoln Ave. is in an upscale Lincoln Park neighborhood seeing much residential and commercial redevelopment, a factor that led the Commission on Chicago Landmarks to recommend the city council preserve one of the city’s oldest movie theaters. The Biograph was one of at least four movie houses built in Chicago in the 1910s, but the only other remaining theater is the Village. Landmark status would restrict renovations to the property.

“The Biograph Theater is one of Chicago’s first and most memorable movie houses for both its infamous crime history and as an entertainment center for Chicagoans for more than 85 years,” says Commission on Chicago Landmarks Chairman David Mosena. “It is important to protect this building from growing development pressures of the neighborhood, and preserve this piece of Chicago history.”