| Additional Information: | A 'site file' exists for this property. It contains additional information such as correspondence, newspaper clippings, or historical information. It is a public record and may be viewed in person at the Wisconsin Historical Society, State Historic Preservation Office.
Was the Ritz Theater until at least 1931.
Good example of movie theater and apartments in the Spanish Colonial Revival style.
The Ritz Theater was constructed in 1926 in the Mediterranean Revival Style. It is a two-story brown brick building with a flat roof and a mansard on the main elevation. The mansard is covered with red clay tiles and features four round-arched dormers. On the second story, there are symmetrically placed openings filled with paired single-light, double-hung sashes, replacements for the original nine-over-one-light sashes.
The first story has three sections; a left section now enclosed with plywood and other wood, a center section that is enclosed with concrete panels and a right section with a bay window, tiled wall, and metal and glass windows and doors. Above the first story is a triangular marquee topped with a vertical sign, “Agape,” the name of a school that recently occupied the building.
The lobby and theater are on the first floor. The lobby has an open ceiling, plaster walls with decorative brickwork in some areas, and carpeted floors. A large office space, similarly decorated, sits in the lobby area. A double-door leads into the theater space.
The theater space is intact although there are some areas in poor condition. The plaster-covered ceiling has a large oval recessed dome accented with a wide molding with dentils. Plaster covers the walls, although in some places, the plaster has fallen off. The elliptically-arched stage has a wide molding with a vertical fluted pattern accented with rosettes and rope molding. Flanking the stage are faux balconies that were once the location of organ pipes. They are decorated with tripartite-arched moldings arches supported by rope style pilasters and art deco stylized “balcony” moldings with large classically-decorated brackets. Below these decorations are exits decorated with elliptically-arched moldings with brackets. Sitting on the concrete floor are the original theater seats. The end seats have panels with an art deco design of vertical and horizontal lines.
History:
The Ritz Theater was built along Villard Avenue near 35th Street, which was the main commercial street of the area that developed as North Milwaukee in the later 19th century. The largely German ethnic area was incorporated as North Milwaukee in 1897. It was a suburb of Milwaukee until the 1920s, when the city of Milwaukee expanded to this area. North Milwaukee was annexed into Milwaukee in 1929 and Villard Avenue remained the commercial center of what was now known as the Old North Milwaukee neighborhood.
Movie theaters in Milwaukee in the 1910s and 1920s were dominated by chain ownership, in particular the Saxe Brothers. Michael Brumm was one of only a handful of “independent” movie theater owners. Independent theaters were primarily smaller and located outside of downtown Milwaukee. Michael Brumm built the Ritz Theater in 1926 along Villard Avenue and it became a popular neighborhood movie theater. Brumm and his son, Arnold, owned and operated the theater until 1959, when a modern chain, the Marcus Theaters, purchased it. In 1962, it became the Villa Theater and the Marcus chain operated the theater until 1986.
In 1988, Tanya and Herman Lewis purchased the theater and attempted to revive it with movies and a community theater. The Lewis’ were one of the few African-American theaters owners in the country, but by 1995, they had to close the theater due to low profits. After 1995 the theater was home to a salon, a school called “Agape,” a church, and a bookstore, but for the past few years, it has been vacant. It was acquired by the City of Milwaukee and offered to developers to rehabilitate it as part of economic development efforts along Villard Avenue.
(Carol Cartwright 2023) |
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| Bibliographic References: | City directories.
Tax Program.
"Old North Milwaukee," www.neighborhoodsinMilwaukee.org/Old%20North%20Milwaukee.pdf
Larry Widen & Judi Anderson, Silver Screens A Pictorial History of Milwaukee’s Movie Theaters, Madison: State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 2007
Bobby Tanzilo, “Urban Spelunking: the Ritz/Villa Theater,” On Milwaukee web site, www.onmilwaukee.com |
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