Column: Renovation at former Holiday movie theater in Park Forest to-do box

Chicago Tribune

19-05-2025

Two years ago, at a villagewide workshop that evolved into a master plan for Park Forest, numerous residents had their say about the future of the downtown area: what to build, what to tear down and what to save. The dormant Holiday movie theater on Main Street was on the keep list.
And why not?
For more than a generation, the cinema dominated the bustling outdoor plaza. The 1,050-seat theater opened Oct. 28,1950, as part of the Park Forest Shoppers Plaza. Should you ask, 'Tight Little Island,' 'Huckleberry Finn' and 'The Red Shoes' were the first films shown.
The Holiday featured a fireplace, a beamed ceiling and a cry room catering to fussy toddlers. It was also a social center for the mushrooming community. Many first dates at the movie house later blossomed into marriage.
Sunday morning church services were once held for what was to become the Faith United Protestant Church, and at one time Saturday morning services for the Reform Jewish Congregation Beth Shalom also took place there.
In the late 1980s it was converted into a three-screen movie emporium, including a screen in the balcony. By 1993, two more screens were added. Alas, by then movie houses played a bad second fiddle to television and tapes.
Owners came and left. Cook County began gobbling up more taxes. In 2008 new owners changed the name to Holiday Star Theater, but the venue shuttered for good in 2013.
All that remained of the site, along with the dust and mold, were the memories, and that, we suspect, is what led to a 'save the Holiday' sentiment among those who once cared.
It will cost a large dollar to clean up, patch up, fix up and rehab the facility, and in a year in which Park Forest is committed to spending up to $5 million to rehab the crumbling infrastructure of the Aqua Center, any plans for the old movie house must be shipped into the 'to be done later' inbox.
The biggest question is, if renovated, what kind of structure will it become?
The theater site is part of a large commercial footprint in the downtown area, bounded by Main Street, Founders Way, Liberty Drive and Cunningham Lane. Although short of ongoing ventures, two new businesses plan to move into that portion of downtown.
The Good Times Gaming Cafe plans to open at the corner of Liberty and Founders Way, taking over from a similar operation on Founders Way, according to the agenda for Monday night's Village Board meeting. The Royal Styles Restaurant will renovate a large space in the center.
Other changes are taking place. Those 44 apartments under private construction at the corner of Indianwood Boulevard and Orchard Drive will probably be finished before the first snow. The desperately needed overhaul of Forest Boulevard and Forest Boulevard will eliminate those pock-marked craters. That project is being done with $480,00 from Cook County piggy bank.
Everything takes time. The Holiday must wait its turn, if there is one.
The last time we met, there was a discussion about the conflict between the sparrow and the wren competing for the same space in our backyard gourd, how the sparrow would build the nest and the wren would come along and start dismantling it.
It was written that the wren won, but the sparrow was never notified. One day after publication, the sparrow took over, barging in and, as many a squatter does, taking over the property.
The wren shrugged its wings, in an avian 'oh well' and flew off. There are a number of wrens in our backyard. All birds look alike, thus preventing me from spotting the disenfranchised creature.