{"nrhp_refnum":"78003401","name":"New Masonic Building and Oriental Theater","other_names":["Oriental Theatre"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"20 W. Randolph St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Chicago","county":"Cook County","state":"IL","lat":41.88444365600003,"lon":-87.62823287299994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1978-09-26","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A 24-story office and Masonic hall building with an attached movie palace, the Oriental Theatre, at 20 West Randolph Street in Chicago. Rapp and Rapp designed both; the theatre opened May 8, 1926 and the Masonic building was finished that summer.","why_significant":"The nomination presents the Oriental as an outstanding example of 1920s movie palace design by Rapp and Rapp for Balaban and Katz, with an elaborate East Indian-themed interior. It also notes the engineering feat of eight stories of Masonic halls built over a theatre with no visible supports, and the site's link to the Iroquois Theatre fire of 1906.","narrative":"At 20 West Randolph Street in Chicago, a 24-story steel-frame tower clad in buff brown terra cotta houses both offices and the Oriental Theatre. Rapp and Rapp designed the complex in 1925. The theatre opened on May 8, 1926, and the Masonic building was completed later that summer. The exterior reflects early Art Deco, with a Gothic-inspired vertical emphasis. Inside, the theatre follows an East Indian theme, with a four-story grand lobby, bronze staircases, scagliola pillars, mosaics and a 3,124-seat auditorium. Eight floors of Masonic halls sit above the theatre without visible supports. Balaban and Katz built it as one of their cinema palaces, and it was designed around the stage band of Paul Ash. It stands on the site of the Iroquois Theatre, which burned in 1906, and still shows scorched walls from that fire. Later changes include the loss of the vertical sign, simplified facade details, removed chandeliers and a remodeled stage area.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific date 5-8-1926)","architect_builder":"C.W. & Geo Rapp (Rapp and Rapp)","architectural_style":"Art Deco, a stylized adaptation of Gothic revival (exterior); movie palace with East Indian theme (interior)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Listed as occupied, with commercial and entertainment use. Altered: the buttress-like ribs, parts of the cornice and the vertical sign were removed, and the lobby chandeliers were removed in the late 1960s.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:55:35.823-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/8924/28892456/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_IL/78003401.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003401/883d7698f7-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/78003401/883d7698f7-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Alanscottwalker","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nederlander_Theatre_Chicago_2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Alanscottwalker</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nederlander_Theatre_Chicago_2.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"98001351","name":"Loop Retail Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/illinois/loop-retail-historic-district-98001351/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/28892456","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nederlander_Theatre_(Chicago)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3077068"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/illinois/cook-county/new-masonic-building-and-oriental-theater-78003401/"}