Harris and Selwyn Theaters

Landmark Context

Harris and Selwyn Theaters is located at 180-90 N Dearborn st in the city's landmark record. The current city data lists it as dating to a construction date of 1922 and credits C. Howard Crane & H Kenneth Franzheim. It was designated on March 31, 1983. Harris and Selwyn Theaters gives researchers a way to connect commercial development, architectural branding, and corridor and downtown change to one actual site.

Harris and Selwyn Theaters starts to make more sense when researchers track storefront depth, upper-floor expression, and corner treatment, how the facade addresses pedestrian traffic, and later signage, infill, or reuse. The point is not just to admire the building but to understand how commercial architecture stayed visible even as the economic life around it changed.

Research Starting Points

Harris and Selwyn Theaters can be checked against trade press and city directories, permit files and assessor records, and historic photographs and newspaper coverage when the designation summary runs out. That is usually how a short landmark record turns into a fuller account of use, alteration, and neighborhood setting.

Harris and Selwyn Theaters gives later fieldwork and archives a stable site to keep circling back to.