Jackson 5

Designed by movie palace architect John Eberson and built by Maximillian Dubois in 1924, Gary’s Palace Theater was the place to see vaudeville acts and motion pictures in the City of the Century in the roaring twenties.

John Eberson (1875-1954) was born in Cernauti, Bukovina, part of Romania in 1875 and immigrated to the United States in 1901. He studied electrical engineering at the University of Vienna. He settled in St. Louis, MO. and began working for Johnston Realty and Construction Company and in 1904 set up his own practice which he moved to Chicago in 1910.

The theater, an anchor in downtown, was shuttered in 1972. In 1987, three Gary doctors tried to bring the Palace Theater back to life, buying the building at a tax sale for $30,000. They planned to invest between $500,000 and one million dollars to renovate the theater, the adjoining restaurants and storefronts and 27 apartments. They eventually abandoned the deal after the first restaurant opened was unsuccessful.

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