Walter W. Ahlschlager

A cartoon of architect Walter W. Ahlschlager from 1923; Ahlschlager designed many of Uptown's landmark buildings, including the Sheridan Plaza Hotel.

Original image from book available here: Walter W. Ahlschlager

The Prince of Wales Slept Here -- Advertisement with Sovereign Hotel

 

Hotel Sovereign, 6200 N. Kenmore, Edgewater, Chicago. The Sovereign was designed by Walter Ahlschlager, who designed the Broadway Building and the Sheridan Plaza Hotel.

Original advertisement available at time of posting from here: Sovereign Hotel Chicago

Here is another ad featuring the Sovereign.

This one is available here: Sovereign Hotel Chicago

6200 Kenmore, Sovereign Hotel

The Sovereign Hotel, at 6200 Kenmore, as it looked in 1957. The Sovereign was designed by Walter W. Ahlschlager. Ahlschlager was the architect who designed the elaborate terracotta Broadway Building, the Sheridan-Plaza Hotel at Wilson and Sheridan, and the Pantheon Theatre (torn down) on Sheridan, just north of Wilson.

To see the original floor plans of the Sovereign, go to Walter Ahlschlager PDF.

Pantheon Theatre, 4642 N. Sheridan, Uptown, Chicago

The Uptown wasn't the only large movie house in Uptown. Before that, there was the Pantheon, located just north of Wilson on Sheridan. Designed by Walter Ahlschlager for the Lubliner and Trinz chain, it opened in 1918. Here's a great advertisement for Kewanee Smokeless boilers featuring the Pantheon Theatre.

According to Cinema Treasures:

"The Pantheon opened its doors in 1918 for the Lubliner & Trinz chain, located in the Uptown neighborhood on Sheridan Road at Eastwood Avenue. At the time it opened, it was said to have 3000 seats. It was the largest movie theater in the area until seven years later, when the nearby Uptown Theatre opened. The theater cost over $750,000 to build, and was decorated in the style of the Italian Renaissance, complete with a double organ and a 30-piece orchestra. Within a few years, the operation of the Pantheon was taken over by Essaness until, like so many other theaters in Chicago, it was added to the always-expanding Balaban and Katz chain. By the 50s, the Uptown neighborhood was no longer the entertainment mecca it was from the 1910s through WWII, and the Pantheon's fortunes rapidly declined, as did the rest of Uptown. The Pantheon remained in operation into the early 60s. It was demolished in 1962 and was replaced by a parking lot."

If Ahlschlager's name sounds familiar, it's because he designed a number of Uptown's most prominent buildings, including the Sheridan Plaza Hotel. Get a PDF download of some of his work here: Walter Ahlschlager.

Uptown Broadway Builing and Walter Ahlschlager

Legend of the North Side

By Eve M. Kahn

Unverifiable legends persist about the Uptown Broadway Building on Chicago’s North Side. Al Capone allegedly built the place and ran a speakeasy in its basement, which extends deep below the Broadway sidewalks. But the truths about the Uptown Broadway are as interesting as the tales.

The Spanish Baroque 1926 building is engulfed in terra cotta depicting rams, musical instruments, military trophies, garlands, volutes, Medusas, fruit, fringed curtains and tasseled ropes. The roofline bristles with urns and Poseidons, and the building’s triangular footprint, which backs onto the Red Line elevated tracks, narrows to an improbable 9-in.-wide point.

The Uptown’s now-underappreciated architect, Walter W. Ahlschlager (1887-1965), was prolific and charismatic. He ran offices in Chicago, New York and Dallas, working in a variety of Classical Revival modes (and after World War II, he segued gamely into curtain-wall Modernism). His 1920s masterworks are as high profile as Cincinnati’s Carew Tower, Manhattan’s Roxy and Beacon theaters, and Chicago’s InterContinental hotel...

Read complete article at Traditional Building

Sheridan Plaza Hotel

Walter W. Ahlschlager was the architect who designed the Sheridan Plaza Hotel at Wilson and Sheridan, as well as the Broadway Building at Broadway and Leland (now undergoing a restoration.) This image of the Sheridan Plaza hotel comes from a 1921 issue of American Builder magazine featuring Ahlschlager's work. A facsimile of the entire article is available as a free download from CompassRose.org.