Modjeska Theatre
1134 Historic W. Mitchell Street,
Milwaukee,
WI
53204
1134 Historic W. Mitchell Street,
Milwaukee,
WI
53204
8 people
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After the pandemic now some movement on this theatre. The most recent proposal is to convert it to an esports venue. Details here
The owner of Milwaukee’s historic MODJESKA Theatre at 1134 W. Historic Mitchell Street is seeking proposals to make improvements to and operate the building. The MODJESKA has been shuttered since 2010. It first opened its doors to patrons in 1910, and was replaced with a much larger structure in 1924 that contained 2,000 seats, a full orchestra pit and a Barton pipe organ, according to a request for proposals recently issued by Modjeska owner Mitchell Street Development Opportunities Corp. The owner’s goals for the theater include maximizing it as a community resource, using it as a catalyst for further economic development of Historic Mitchell Street, and ensuring the facility is maintained and improved so it can remain a “cultural asset for the Historic Mitchell Street community and the city of Milwaukee.” according to the RFP, which comes after the city’s Historic Preservation Commission earlier this month considered extending a mothball certificate for the theater. This would further delay the issuance of building code violations. The document also notes the theater may be situated in an Opportunity Zone and may also be eligible for state or federal historical tax credits. John Kesselman is the president of MSDOC. The Historic Mitchell Street Business Improvement District voiced its opposition to extending the mothball certificate. Rudy Gutierrez, board president of the Mitchell Street BID, wrote in a letter to commission members that BID “urges that the theatre’s future use be community-oriented, and that plans move ahead as soon as possible for its future use.” The Commission agreed to hold the extension request for a month as the Modjeska owner worked through the RFP process. The RFP had not been made final at the time of the meeting. Responses to the RFP are due on Feb. 15.
Theatre opened 2 August 1924.
Modjeska Theatre hopes for March opening By Tom Daykin of the Journal Sentinel – Jan. 23, 2016 Milwaukee’s Modjeska Theatre, which has been undergoing cleanup and renovations for the past two years, plans to reopen in March.
But the theater, a longtime fixture on the city’s south side, initially will not show films.
Instead, it will host mainly concerts and other live events before eventually adding movies to the lineup, said Jesus Nanez, who will help operate the Modjeska, 1134 W. Historic Mitchell St.
“Our vision is that it will be a multiuse venue,” said Nanez, a part owner of Modjeska Theatre Co., which is leasing the theater portion of the building.
The two-story building, including the theater and retail storefronts, is owned by Modjeska Theatre Project LLC, an affiliate of Mitchell Street Development Opportunity Corp., a nonprofit group.
That group in 2014 began removing garbage and debris from the theater, while raising money to renovate the building. It has been closed since 2010.
The group’s members initially planned to open the Modjeska in fall 2014. The work, including fundraising, has taken longer than expected, said Nanez, a commercial broker with Kesselman Real Estate.
However, he said, “There’s definitely been a lot of progress.”
Most of the cleanup work is done. The stage has been altered to open up the orchestra pit. Also, the heating and power systems are being upgraded, Nanez said, and the sprinkler system is being repaired.
Once the building has heat and the power is fully operating, work can more easily proceed on painting the interior and doing plaster repairs. Some of that work has already occurred, he said.
Those initial projects will cost around $200,000. A full restoration of the Modjeska would cost an estimated $5 million, Nanez said.
The restoration, which could include financing through state and federal historic preservation tax credits, would include exterior renovations, such as a new marquee. Engberg Anderson Architects has been providing volunteer work for that possible redesign, he said.
“The historic renovation is definitely some years away,” Nanez said. “We need to get open and get the ball rolling. … I don’t have a Pabst Theater standard of what it should look like.”
Another future project includes removing the bottom floor seats.
Those seats, which are likely over 30 years old, are in poor shape, he said.
They will be replaced with removable chairs and cocktail tables to create cabaret seating. The second-floor seats will remain.
“We will be able to accommodate large banquets with a one-of-a-kind venue,” Nanez said.
Attracting live events creates a revenue source for the Modjeska, said Nanez, a professional musician who has relationships with show promoters. His gigs have included drumming for the Milwaukee group Vic and Gab.
The theater will seek a tavern license so it can serve beer, wine and cocktails at live events, Nanez said. While a regular film schedule isn’t part of the near-term plan, the Modjeska could host the Milwaukee Short Film Festival this September.
Last year’s festival was held at ComedySportz, 420 S. 1st St., and drew around 1,000 people over two days, said Bill Quirmbach, co-director. He said a final decision for the 2016 venue will likely be made in April.
“We’re very encouraged” by the prospect of locating at the Modjeska, Quirmbach said. He said the festival would bring its own projection and sound equipment, sparing the theater that expense.
Nanez said the Modjeska also might eventually convert one of the retail storefronts into an attached bar and restaurant, similar to Bay View’s Avalon Theater, which reopened in 2014.
“It’s really got great potential,” he said.
The Modjeska opened in 1925 and was used for both films and vaudeville performances. It stopped regular movie showings in 1989.
Two years later, the building was sold to Stewart and Diane Johnson, who started the Modjeska Youth Theatre Company. Their nonprofit group staged amateur productions such as “Annie” and “West Side Story.”
Also, the theater was used for professional shows, including performances by David Byrne, Alice in Chains, Gregg Allman, Rob Zombie, Nanci Griffith, Marilyn Manson and They Might Be Giants.
In December 2006, the Johnsons sold the theater for $450,000 to Modjeska Theater Project, a partnership between the youth theater company and Mitchell Street Development Opportunity Corp.
But the youth theater company’s revenue couldn’t cover its expenses, and that group folded in April 2010. That left Mitchell Street DOC with the building.
The Modjeska’s renovations are among a series of nearby new real estate investments.
They include the conversion of the former Goldmann’s Department Store, 930-932 W. Historic Mitchell St., into the new home of the Gerald L. Ignace Indian Health Center; the upcoming conversion of the historic Hills Building, 906-910 W. Historic Mitchell St., into a new Milwaukee Public Library branch and 57 market-rate apartments, and next weekend’s opening of Mitchell Street Marketplace, a neighborhood grocery at 1101 W. Historic Mitchell St.
Once upon a time, The Modjeska Theater, 1134 W. Mitchell St., was a neighborhood movie palace, the big daddy of Mitchell Street, the second busiest thoroughfare in Milwaukee after Wisconsin Avenue. The street was so bustling and such a magnet for surrounding South Side enclaves that it boasted six theaters in about as many blocks. Among them The Juneau, dressed up in Venetian splendor, was a big draw and so was the Granada, directly across the street from the Modjeska, and the Pearl, further west on 19th Street. The current Modjeska Theater, built in 1924 and designed by Chicago’s C.W. and George Rapp, needs work, but step inside and you’ll still be transported to the era of the grand movie palace. It’s richly detailed, both inside and out, and it was clearly a temple to motion pictures and to Vaudeville, which shared the spotlight here.
Among the theaters Rapp and Rapp designed were the Warner (“The Grand”, still standing) and The Wisconsin and the Uptown Theaters in Milwaukee, both razed.
An earlier Modjeska – named for Polish actress Helena Modjeska (nee Modrzejewska) who had died in 1909 – was built on the site in 1910 by Milwaukee movie moguls, brothers Thomas and John Saxe, who built a companion place Downtown on Third Street, the Princess (demolished in the ‘80s). The old Modjeska was damaged in a fire, but its 900 seats were inadequate to meet demand anyway, and so the old Modjeska was torn down to make way for the 2,000-seat theater that still stands today — though with a somewhat smaller capacity now — wrapped in terra cotta and currently undergoing what supremely knowledgeable theater historian Larry Widen (author of “Milwaukee Movie Palaces,” aka “Silver Screens”) — who had been leading the work before parting ways with the theater’s owners — called, “a really good clean up.”
“This is a Downtown-style movie palace,” he said as we stood at the foot of the stage and gazed up to the ceiling, three stories above. “It had all the trappings. There were five other theaters on this block and this was the most expensive. This was the pricey one. Usually what would happen is the movies would premiere Downtown. I think they played about a week. You know, the big Bogey or Cagy picture or whatever would start out Downtown. Then it would make its way out to the first tier of the suburban theaters and this was one of them. This one, the Uptown, the Oriental, the Tower, the Avalon, The National and from there they would kind of make their way down the street from 35 cents to a quarter, 20 cents, 10 cents to 5 cents.”
The theater has been closed for nearly five years and United Artists stopped running it in 1989. It was still screening films into the 1990s. The Modjeska had, for a period, been the Midwest home office for UA and by the early ‘80s it was a budget cinema, admitting patrons for $1 a head. Later, Stewart and Diane Johnson bought the theater and it became home to the Modjeska Youth Theater Co. and the venue continued to also host concerts and other events on a rental basis. Magician David Seebach often staged events there. In 2007, the youth group and the Mitchell Street Development Opportunity Corporation (MSDOC) partnered to create the Modjeska Theater Project, which purchased the theater, and three years later the youth group folded. Now, the Modjeska is owned by a non-profit trust called the Mitchell Street Development Opportunities Board. Having been vacant for five years, the theater already was in need of some TLC. Then last winter happened. More specifically, a pipe burst in the basement and here were about 900,000 gallons of water down there in February. Though it seems mostly dry and, remarkably, doesn’t smell too musty anymore, there’s a visible high water mark on the walls.
“Right now there is mostly painting and cleaning going on,” says Project Manager Jesus Enrique Nañez, who’s on the theater’s board. “We have several contractors that are volunteering some time for electrical and plumbing work to make sure we are up to code. The heaviest work load is in funding these repairs.” The roof has been redone and a crew of volunteers is helping to repaint and repair parts of the theater’s many surviving details, like gorgeous railings up to the balcony lobby, and scrollwork in the theater. The entry lobby is adorned with plaster motifs and appears to be in fine shape.
The orchestra pit was covered by the youth group when it extended the stage in the 1990s. Two boxes remain, though the organ and the pipes that would’ve been housed in lofts above the boxes are long gone. “As of right now we do not have a projected opening date,” says Nañez. “We have a goal to open some of the theatre space to artistic and community based groups in 2015. However, we will provide public access to the theatre during our participation in the Doors Open Milwaukee event and we encourage people to come over to check out the theater and all of the renovation progress.” The board expects to present a mix of programming in the theater, including a variety of films about 25 percent of the time. Concerts and performances by a range of arts groups interested in the space will round out the schedule.
The Modjeska was built as a stop for regional vaudeville acts and has hosted live music for decades. Marty Robbins played there in ‘61 and in more recent decades the theater has hosted performances by Marilyn Manson, They Might Be Giants (during whose concert the stage famously gave way), Ministry, Cheap Trick, Judas Priest, Gregg Allmann and others. “The stage was built with an orchestra pit with an organ and an organ box and a full stage,” said Widen. “The stage is now 28 feet deep to the back wall and it’s 40 feet from proscenium opening to opening. You can get a pretty good-sized act on the stage.”
Playing to the local crowd is what theaters often did, and the Modjeska screened Polish films in the 1940s to draw on the area’s heavily Polish population. In that spirit, Widen had said the Modjeska planned to spotlight films currently being made in the reinvigorated Mexican movie industry and Nañez suggests that remains the plan survives.
There are panoramic views of the city from the roof, and old offices above the retail shops that are part of the building. On the opaque glass panels in some of the doors you can make out the names of former occupants, which had been painted on. In one former office, the youth group had created a “mini Modjeska,” a tiny theater. Behind the screen you can open the windows and step out on to the marquee. If you lean out you can look straight down Mitchell Street, down to 11th, where the streetcar used to bend the corner around. Up in the projection booth, there’s an open toilet and sink in the corner because projectionists weren’t allowed to leave the booth under any circumstances, so the facilities were demanded by their union. Above the balcony level are two rooms where the films were assembled for projection.
In the basement, newly built wooden racks hold the letters that name the films on the marquee. This is where the dressing rooms for performers are located and the basement is a maze of rooms. Down here it’s dark, but one can see the quirky patterns on the walls left by the water of the winter flood. There are also walls adorned with graffiti left by performers of shows performed on the stage above. It was on the list of buildings for the 2014 Doors Open Milwaukee event, Sept. 20-21.
There’s work to be done, and only a portion of the estimated $150,000 required to complete the work has been raised. Much of the remainder is expected to be generated by revenue once the theater reopens. “This project is being completed by mostly volunteers and donations,” says Nañez. “Painting, cleaning up, creating a good buzz about the theater. Every donation helps us buy vital supplies needed to move the project forward. There will be great opportunities for individuals and companies vested in the area to have naming rights of different sections of the theater. we have launched our first mailer requesting donations and we have had some great results come in already. We are certainly in need of more support and would appreciate donations and volunteers at this time.”
If you are interested in donating time, effort and/or money, please contact Jesus E Nañez at (414) 982-9378 and help restore a vital part of the social history of Milwaukee’s South Side.
The Modjeska is scheduled to reopen this fall! I am excited and hope that this is the first step towards a full renovation. http://m.jsonline.com/more/business/reopening-modjeska-theatre-crucial-to-paying-for-restoration-b99265138z1-258726641.html
A Golden Voiced Barton Theater Pipe Organ, 3/10, manual/rank, keyboards/sets of pipes, was shipped from the Barton organ factory in Oshkosh, Wisconsin in 1924. In the 1950’s the organ was removed and the pipe organ chambers were used to install the air conditioning units. Know what happened to the organ?
A few photos from September 2012 are here: link
There is still a notice in the window on how to contribute to its restoration. Hopefully it will be preserved.
Sounds like this theater’s days are numbered, sadly.
The theater is closed. Some friends of mine had been doing volunteer work last year on the electrical systems but finally gave up because of lack of financial support.
I believe this theater is closed now. The link to the official website seems to come up with a bunch of characters that look like Chinese letters. Anyone know for sure?
Strange photo posted May 5th by Chuck,
I posted someting along those lines on May 3 – see above.
There was a recent (early May) story in the Milwaukee Sentinel that the Modjeska is now closed. The youth group that had been operating it at a deficit had to close it’s doors. Maybe someone can post the link.
This theater has hit a bump in the road financially as the youth theater that was its principal tenant has folded. Community leaders are rallying to preserve the theater’s future; story here: View link
I think our MODJESKA in Augusta looks a bit better.
The Modjeska Theatre in Augusta is currently closed.It had been turned into a nightspot and it is used for private parties. It is on CT if anyone wants to read about it. Its History is much like theone here.
I’ve also posted a recent photo of the Modjeska Theater.
I have added history of the MODJESKA in Augusta.For you info.
Recent photos of this theatre are HERE
Milwaukee’s Common Council’s Development Committee today recommended approval of a 3.1 million dollar proposal for improving some key landmarks, including the Modjeska Theater, on Mitchell Street.
I grew up on 12th and Scott, born in 1954.I remember going to see a 2 or 3 movie matinee on Sunday afternoons for a quarter. Kids were seated on the floor in front of the first row and up the aisles. Apparently there were no capacity rules. Also being bombarded
with candy from the balcony. We would exit into the alley.The daylight was blinding. Schlitz brewery, where my father worked, also had there Christmas party there. We were all given a huge mesh stocking, packed with toys and candy after the show.Very fond, distant memories!!
The city of Milwaukee is looking to restore the MODJESKA THEATRE (Rapp & Rapp) and West Mitchell Street itself to its historic grandeur with a proposed $3.1 million tax incremental financing district. “It’s like a step forward into the past; Mitchell Street has a history of being a thriving commercial corridor,†said Joel Brennan, assistant executive director and secretary of Milwaukee’s redevelopment authority. The TIF district (PDF) would stretch from South Fifth to South 16th streets and cover all properties one block north and south of Mitchell Street. It would also include a commercial stretch of West Forest Home Avenue between South 13th and South 15th streets. The TIF money would be split in half into two separate funds â€" one for commercial projects and a second for infrastructure. A development fund totaling $1.5 million would give grants or loans to retail projects on Mitchell Street to help pay for work like restoring historic stone building facades. “Those are certainly the types of funds to help make projects pop in the corridor that otherwise might be financially unfeasible,†Brennan said. Brennan and the TIF plan pointed to three projects as likely recipients of that money â€"redeveloping the Goldmann’s department store, restoring the Modjeska Theater and fixing up the Walgreens building at 1101 W. Mitchell. Any funding for those projects would require separate redevelopment authority and Common Council approval after the TIF district is created.
The Modjeska Theater’s owners â€" Mitchell Street Development Opportunities Corp. and nonprofit Modjeska Theater Co. â€" are facing renovation costs ranging from $7.5 million to $8.9 million. The improvements would include restoring the building’s exterior masonry, new theater seating and sound systems, and upgrading its heating, cooling, plumbing, fire protection and electrical systems. The owners plan to continue to use the restored building for theater productions but also hope to attract meetings and conventions.
To create a TIF district, the city borrows money to pay for projects and then repays its debt using any increases in property taxes within the district. The city estimated the Mitchell Street TIF district would repay its $3.1 million in debt by 2025.
I’m 29 years old and I grew up in milwaukee and I saw my first “scary” movie on the big screen at the modjeska which was Children Of The Corn
I just got an inquiry concerning the Modjeska from a woman working with the Mitchell Street Development Opportunities Corp, in conjunction with the “Modjesks Theater Company” regarding raising funds to purchase the theater as well as listing it on the National Register of Historic Places. It is nice to see interest in this lesser Rapp & Rapp design.