It wasn’t as grand as the Midway and Coronado theaters, but the Capitol Theatre at, 1132 S. Main St. in Rockford, played a significant role on the city’s entertainment scene for several decades.
Today, the 1,000-seat Capitol is among a boarded-up row of buildings, a far cry from when the atmospheric theater emitted sounds of show tunes, movies and the likes of Aretha Franklin and James Brown.
“I remember sitting on the fire escape, listening to the concerts until they chased us off the stairwells,” said Mantalla Ellis, who grew up on the city’s southwest side in the 1960s and ’70s.
Built in 1928 by Anthony Domino and Theodore Ingrassia for less than $200,000, the Capitol Theatre was a regular stop for vaudevillian comedians in the ’30s. It showed first-run movies until the 1950s and became a concert hall until it closed in the ’70s. The space later became a pool hall and was eventually darkened.
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The Capitol Theatre is now marked with a red “X”, warning firefighters that entering the building during an emergency could be dangerous.
He doesn’t remember it in its vaudevillian heyday, but Ellis recalls vividly a time when the Capitol, Coronado, Midway and Times theaters were bustling and would host sold-out shows on the same night. Whether it was local production, concert or a film, the venues were always aglow during his childhood.
Ellis hopes now that the Coronado is flourishing and the Times is getting a facelift, the city would again have a busy theater district. Sadly though, he says the longer the Midway Theater and other Rockford landmarks sit exposed to the elements, the harder it will be to preserve pieces of Rockford’s history beyond what’s in photographs.
“I won’t say, ‘never’,” he said. “But they’ll have to a lot of tearing down and rebuild.”
Preparations to redevelop the Times Theater, 224 N. Main St., began in January. The $14 million project is expected to begin this year to turn the 86-year-old theater into a midsize venue for concerts, comedy shows and films.
The Midway Theater still sits empty at 721 E. State St. The roof collapsed in 2013, dampening hopes that the theater portion of the building can be saved.
Jim Hagerty writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for the Rockford Register Star. Email him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Rockford Register Star: What happened to Rockford’s Capitol Theatre? Here’s what we know
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