Majestic Theatre

Our Take

The Majestic Theatre on North Vermillion Street is closed for restoration, but its story makes it one of downtown Streator’s most fascinating buildings. It opened on July 29, 1907, as a ‘high class family vaudeville’ house, and early Streator newspapers recorded a famous stunt that August: a couple married onstage inside a cage of lions. The theatre was gutted and rebuilt in 1921, which is when its light-bulb facade went up, and over the following decades it closed and reopened again and again. It ran as a Publix movie house from 1936, was condemned in 1955, was restored by the Kerasotes chain in 1968, and added a second screen in a neighboring building in 1980. After Kerasotes closed it in 1995, local owners revived it for classic films, concerts, first-run movies from 2007 and a donor-funded digital upgrade in 2014. Today its owner is raising money to bring it back. Credit for the architecture is disputed: the owner’s site names Rapp and Rapp, while 1907 newspaper research cited on Cinema Treasures points to Frank Cox.

• Closed for restoration
• Opened July 29, 1907 as a vaudeville house
• Rebuilt in 1921; its light-bulb facade dates from that rebuild
• Reopened in 1936 as a Publix movie house; closed and condemned in 1955
• Restored and reopened by Kerasotes in 1968; second screen added in 1980
• Closed by Kerasotes in 1995; revived under later owners, first-run films from 2007, digital projection in 2014
• Owner is raising funds to restore it; architect credit disputed (Rapp and Rapp vs. Frank Cox)

Find Us

📍 119 N. Vermillion Street, Streator, IL 61364