New Shubert Theatre - Minneapolis, Minn.

I chose to show this postcard of the Minneapolis Shubert Theatre because of its beautiful handwriting and its date. This postcard was in the mail exactly 100 years ago. It was written on July 16, 1911 and postmarked on July 17, 1911. It was sent from Minneapolis to "Brother" in Pennock, Minnesota. It also has an interesting message mentioning "postals," which is what postcards were often called.

Minneapolis 7/16/11
Dear Brother:
Spose you are working hard every day. tell Victor I will send him a postal one evening this week. we just came home from Minnehaha. Send us a postal.

The Shubert Theatre has had an interesting history. After a move and a slow renovation, it is scheduled to have a Grand Opening in September 2011 as the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts. It was formerly located at 22 7th Street North. It is currently located at 516 Hennepin Avenue. Here is a historic profile from Minneapolis Heritage Preservation:

Built in 1910 to accommodate The Shubert Theatrical Company of New York, the Shubert Theater is considered the oldest legitimate theater in Minneapolis. Initially located on 7th Street, the theater’s main façade is a Beaux-Arts design composed of glazed terracotta with a granite base. The theater’s auditorium, built without center aisles on all three levels of seating, has superb sight lines for viewing the stage and superior acoustics. However, drastic alterations in 1957 stripped the auditorium walls of decorative molder plaster trim which repeated the ionic order of the exterior façade thus preventing the interior from being historically designated. The Shubert Theater brought Broadway to Minneapolis in 1910, but has served several functions since. From 1915 to 1934, the theater operated as a stock company house with actors from New York, then converted into a primarily vaudeville and burlesque showplace. For a brief period in the 1950s, it was owned by the Minneapolis Evangelical Association, but was soon re-opened as the Academy, a theater exclusively for motion pictures. The Shubert closed in 1982 and sat vacant on 7th Street, the block later developed as Block E. Demolition of the historic theater was considered an option until the non-profit organization, Artspace Projects Inc., proposed to re-locate the 2,900-ton a quarter-mile to Hennepin Avenue for an estimated cost of $4 million.

A description and pictures of moving the Shubert in 1999 is here. Below is a time lapse video of the Shubert building moving: