How we could have saved the Crocker
All that remains of the landmark Crocker Theater (Photo by The Elginite).
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden - T.S. Eliot
The below picture diagrams how the River Park Place condominium did not require the destruction of the landmark Crocker Theater. The condominium’s footprint could have been moved south, and Dupage Street could have been extended to enable access to the riverside parking lot.
Extending Dupage Street would have required the destruction of this building, which is far more dispensible than the landmark Crocker.
And it would have been a perfect chance to get rid of this nasty, nasty, Jack-the-Ripper corridor.
But somehow our councilmen thought the Crocker was a blight, not this.
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I remember that “Jack the Ripper” corridor well. When I took music lessons at Bell-Morford (sic?) Piano and Organ, my grandmother would pick me up on Riverside Drive, and I used that corridor to get there.
I spent many an afternoon at the Crocker. Saw “Thunderbirds Are Go” there, one of the films that made me want to go to Hollywood to be a professional model-maker in the special effects biz. It sat for so long unused, it’s a sad thing to see such a landmark single-screen movie palace bite the dust.
Believe it or not, there are actually some of those surviving here in Los Angeles.
*sigh*
Dale Thelander, Bandit Eng. & EFX
Save the English Oak trees that still stand next to the hole that used to be the vacant Crocker theater.
So you’re still in LA, Dale? From your comments, I’d thought maybe you’d move back.
Thanks for all the extra information. It’s very interesting.
Yeah, still in L.A.
Can’t beat the winters. But, part of me still belongs to Elgin.
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