A valuable history lesson here from the Douglas County Historical Society. What a shame that the City of Superior lost this beautiful old building to the wrecking ball.
Designed by noted theatre architects Rapp and Rapp in 1917. The Palace Theatre in Superior, Wisconsin closed in 1982. Except for brief use as a church in the late 1980’s, it was vacant until its demolition in November 2006, for which Mayor Dave Ross and city hall were criticized.
The demolition of the building caused it to be listed on the National Historic Preservation’s “Worst of 2006” list of atrocities. This video was of a public tour given in Sept. 2002 by Kathy Laakso of the DCHS.
I actually was at I think one of the Palace’s last movie showings..I think it was 1979..and I believe they were showing “Star Trek”. I was with Muriel Singer, and her dad, Barry. He was the librarian at the East End library at the time. I was only eight at the time, but I was in awe of the screen , the big movie theater seats..and I remember some people were smoking..which was weird to me at the time. I wonder if anyone else remembers this showing?
“Star Trek The Motion Picture”, the first in the series, had its first run in December 1979 at the Norshor in Duluth. It played 8 weeks, then on April 30, 1980 the first showing of it in Superior was at the Beacon Theatre. I could not find it ever playing at the Palace. That first “Star Trek” played another time in Superior for a week when the Mariner 4 had its grand opening in December 1980. (The second “Star Trek” film was released shortly after the closing of the Palace).
The Palace and Norshor closed in April 1982. The last show at the Palace was “Reds”. Here’s a list of the Christmas attractions at the Palace in its last years:
1973 – The Seven Ups
1974 – The Godfather Part II
1975 – Dog Day Afternoon
1976 – King Kong
1977 – Close Encounters of the Third Kind
1978 – Every Which Way But Loose
1979 – Going in Style
1980 – Any Which Way You Can
1981 – Taps