Miscellaneous Scenes Of Streator

[MnM]

Oh great pictures as usual here... thanks for sharing these! And JOB you too silly.............lol ........... Kay ;D

[John]

Didn't the Plumb Theatre seem much larger than the tiny parking lot that is left in it's place?

[Stephanie]

Look at all of those seats left in there. If that building was torn down today, would more have been salvaged from it? Makes you wonder.

[galsal]

I would think anyone renovating an old theatre would buy up any of the good ones. Before any building is tore down, as much salvage as possible should be done. I'm very big on recycling. Way too much ends up in landfills that don't have to. I cringe every time on t.v. they show a building being dynamited. Look at the old Kennedy building -- someone bought all the bricks then cleaned them up for use again.

[Stephanie]

You'd probably love this place, galsal, www.salvageone.com/index.php . It is such a neat place to wander around and see what they've salvaged from buildings. Its in a peculiar location, but well worth the drive/risk. Its been many years since I've been there.

[galsal]

I've been to the one in Bloomington. It's awsome! I like to see things recycled. Anyway, the woodwork, etc. from the old buildings is of a quality that isn't made today.

[John]

[johnp]

The Plumb was torn down because the theater chain who owned it, the Majestic and the Drive Inn didn't want the expense of operating two separate theaters on same street. So they added the second screen to the Majestic in the Hudacko Funeral Home building on the corner. Then they could have two screens/theaters in one, utilizing one manager and crew.

They would not sell the Plumb because that would mean selling to a competitor.

They got an engineer to say the Plumb was unsafe and tore it down. They did not salvage anything because they would have to show the income from anything salvaged. They didn't sell the remains to a demolition company who would recycle anything either. They wanted the maximum loss so they could have the maximum tax write off. It was just an old building and people of Streator would be better off without it.

[John]

The Plumb Theatre actually caught fire and partially burned, causing it to be condemned. It would have been costly to repair it, so it was razed.

[Job]

I had mixed feeling when the Plumb went down. When I was growing up in Streator, I went to a school, Garfield, which was sort of a midwestern version of an Eastern prep school.

However, when I got to 8th grade, it became de rigueur on Saturday afternoon at the Plumb for some of the students in my class (no double meaning intended) to occupy the top seats in the balcony. I was shocked to see how the girls in my class would try to put their tongues down the throats of the guys who were admitted to that back row.

Because I was one of those kids preyed upon by those Garfield girls, it took me years to get over the shock of those long ago experiences.

[johnp]

Oh! SB

The fire at the Plumb was in a restroom. There were many fires in the restrooms during the years and they never caused it to be closed down. So maybe there was a fire. It was in the restroom.

Fire burns up. Do you see any evidence of fire in the demolition photos? NO!

They cut a hole in the outside brick of the Plumb to make it look like it was and engineering investigation into to the structure of the building.

It was torn down for a SB reason (tax write off) for the owners of the property at that time. It was admitted to me by a regional manager of the theater chain at the time.

[John]

You're right. The fire wasn't a major fire, just enough damage to cause it to be torn down. I believe it was up in the stage area which cannot be seen in this photo. The stage and screen were damaged as I recall.
When time permits, I will find the old newspaper article with the story about the fire.

[galsal]

[galsal]

Does anyone have a picture of Main St. during the Christmas season when they used to string garland across the streets? I would love to see some old pictures with the town decorated for Christmas.