The Unique Theater was an 830-seat vaudeville theater, built in 1904 on

Hennepin Avenue Hennepin Avenue is a major street in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. It runs from Lakewood Cemetery (at West 36th Street), north through the Uptown District of Southwest Minneapolis, through the Virginia Triangle, the former "Bottleneck" a ...

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 Opened in 1884, the West Hotel was Minneapolis's first grand hotel. It had 407 luxuriously furnished rooms, 140 baths, and featured an immense and opulent lobby which was claimed to be the largest in the nation. These elements combined to make wha ...

. The hotel catered to a family audience with daily performances priced at ten or twenty cents.

History

The theatre was used as a morgue after the West Hotel caught on fire next door.

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin Jr. (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is consider ...

performed at the Unique very early in his career. When vaudeville declined in the 1920s, however, the theater became a single-screen

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

, 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. Following demolition, the

lot Lot or LOT or The Lot or ''similar'' may refer to: Common meanings Areas * Land lot, an area of land * Parking lot, for automobiles *Backlot, in movie production Sets of items *Lot number, in batch production *Lot, a set of goods for sale togethe ...

it had occupied was repurposed as a

parking lot A parking lot (American English) or car park (British English), also known as a car lot, is a cleared area intended for parking vehicles. The term usually refers to an area dedicated only for parking, with a durable or semi-durable surface ...

. (This was planned to be occupied by part of a

Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center The Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts (formerly the Minnesota Shubert Performing Arts and Education Center) is a performing arts center and flagship for dance in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Cowles Center was de ...

, 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

{{Coord, 44, 58, 45.5, N, 93, 16, 25, W, display=title Theatre in Minneapolis Cinemas and movie theaters in Minnesota Theatres completed in 1904 Demolished theatres in the United States 1904 establishments in Minnesota Buildings and structures demolished in 1943 1943 disestablishments in Minnesota Demolished buildings and structures in Minnesota