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depression-era candy boxes discovered beneath congress theater's balcony seats

i discovered a sea of candy wrappers, matchbooks, ticket stubs, and bottles deep within congress theater's underbelly last weekend. for nearly 91 years, moviegoers would conveniently dispose of their trash through cast iron "mushrooms" located directly beneath each and every seat in the auditorium.

all images courtesy of the bldg. 51 museum archive

layers of depression era refuse found "in situ" within the theater's multi-chambered balcony plenum.

 

the space directly beneath the auditorium floor is known as the "plenum" or a concrete chamber designed to facilitate air circulation by a fan system located in the basement's mechanical rooms. protruding two-part cast iron vents concealed the circular openings in the floor, which supplied the space (i.e., auditorium) with "fresh" temperature-controlled air. depression-era movie palaces utilizing pressurized plenums were intended to be maintained and/or cleaned to prevent the quality of the air from becoming polluted.

to be continued...

the two black arrows indicate the concealed chambers were remnants - left by both tradesmen and moviegoers - were discovered during my time there, photodocumenting the theater's interior before restoration gets underway.

in a future post i will discuss theater air circulation in greater detail. in the meantime, i'm still sorting through and lightly cleaning several candy boxes and other objects that were pushed into the "mushroom" vents (located beneath each and every theatergoer's seat) beginning from the time it opened in fall of 1926.

all images courtesy of eric j. nordstrom and/or the bldg. 51 museum archive

 

 



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