Last week I drove over the Red River bridge from Bossier City into downtown Shreveport and I noticed a very interesting building to my right. The historic structure looked like some sort of old burlesque house or something like that. I could see on the front of the building were two illustrations of a couple of ladies that looked like they stepped right out of Cabaret. The marquee on the front of the building read 'Chicago Theatre'. It was such an interesting place that I decided to photograph it when I came back through town this week.
I tried to do some research about the history of the Chicago Theatre to go along with my photos but a Google search provided little to no information. What I was able to piece together was that the Chicago Theatre was once a restaurant and night club that closed up about five years ago. Apparently at the time the building had fallen into such bad disrepair that the patrons were constantly complaining about the state of things.
The building itself dates back to the 1870s and during the 1970s and 80s it was called the Havana home to a popular bar and club scene. The name was changed to the Chicago Theatre in the early 2000s. Last year the building next door burned down but the Chicago was saved by fire fighters.
There has been a long running debate on whether or not to demolish the old historic buildings on the block in favor of building a new parking structure. So far the citizens who want to preserve the history of Shreveport's iconic downtown have been able to hold back the bulldozers and the Chicago Theatre still stands.
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