346 North Neil Street, Champaign

The New Orpheum Theatre was constructed in 1914 from designs of architects George and Cornelius Rapp, alumni of the University of Illinois School of Architecture. The Orpheum was designed as a one-third-scale model of the opera house at Versailles, and its interior was decorated in the French Renaissance and Baroque styles. The auditorium originally had 754 seats and seventeen balcony boxes. During a 1960s “modernization,” the Orpheum’s exterior was covered with blue aluminum siding and some exterior detailing on the facade was lost. Damage to the foyer’s ornate moldings was also sustained, but most of the decorative elements of the theater’s lobby and auditorium remained intact.

The theater closed as a movie house in April 1986 and in 1989 PACA began a campaign to save the structure as the City of Champaign made moves to demolish it for a parking lot. Due to the efforts of PACA and numerous volunteers, the building was saved and plans were made to turn the theater into a children’s museum. In 1991, after a PACA-led volunteer effort to remove the aluminum siding, the structure was placed on the National Register of Historic Places. Under PACA’s guidance, the theater’s new custodians, The Discovery Place, Inc., formally came together as an organization in 1992. They secured a preservation loan form the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Busey Bank, and renovated 6750 sq. ft. of space for offices and a small demonstration museum, which opened in December 1994. PACA holds a preservation easement on the theater’s exterior and its significant interior features. The building is also a designated Champaign landmark. In 1996 the museum was renamed the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum with the granddaughter of Rapp in attendance.

Many people were important in saving and renovating the theater, most notably Carolyn Baxley, who, as a PACA board member and later as the museum’s president and executive director, spearheaded the Orpheum project for more than a decade. Perry Morris and Bruce Creamer, who also served as board members for both PACA and the Orpheum, have donated thousands of hours of volunteer labor to the project since the early 1990s. In recognition of his continuing service to the Orpheum, Creamer was named “Volunteer of the Year” by the Illinois Association of Museums in 1999. PACA continues its involvement with the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum with its co-sponsorship of the annual Kids’ Building Fair. The fair, begun in 1991, is a celebration of the building arts.

PACA provided the museum with initial rehabilitation funds ($50,000) for repairs to the roof, the south brick wall, and the facade. With grants from the Illinois FIRST program and the US Geological Survey, the Orpheum Children’s Science Museum has continued to expand. In October 2000, a major renovation of the theater’s entrance lobby, grand foyer, and mezzanine was completed.  A $250,000 Save America’s Treasures grant has allowed for the restoration of the main theater space in 2009.  Funds are still needed, however, to renovate the stage and facade.