page_title: Orpheum Theatre (Champaign, Illinois)
section_title: Preservation and Children's Museum
hierarchical_section_title: Orpheum Theatre (Champaign, Illinois) / Preservation and Children's Museum
caption_attribution_description: English: Uni High students (left to right) Shaleen Agrawal, Ben Carlton, and Ansel Higgs add a section of plastic tubing to the wind maze they're building.
context_page_description: The Orpheum Theater opened in Champaign, Illinois in 1914 on the site of a vaudeville theater built in 1904. Designed by the Architectural firm Rapp & Rapp, the Orpheum was built to accommodate both live vaudeville performances and the projection of film. After a series of renovations and changes of ownership, the Orpheum screened its final film in 1986.
  Preserved from demolition in 1991, the Orpheum is now home to a children's museum, the Orpheum Children's Science Museum, and is undergoing restoration.
context_section_description: The Champaign Preservation and Conservation Association (PACA) sponsored a public meeting on April 8, 1989, in response to plans to raze the now closed and deteriorating theater. This meeting was held to gauge public interest in saving the Orpheum Theatre. The City of Champaign purchased the Orpheum and adjacent building as a site for a possible parking deck in January, 1990. The city allowed 45 PACA volunteers to spend Saturday, July 7, 1990, removing the aluminum facade to reveal the original look of the building and to assess any damage.
  PACA hired theatre consultant Michael Hardy to do a feasibility study of the Orpheum. He suggested, in July 1990, a children's museum as a possible use for the building. The city did not have a children's museum and there were already several successful performing arts facilities in the area.
  The City of Champaign razed the adjacent warehouse building in February 1991. In the fall of 1991, the theatre facade was cleaned and painted and the marquee given cosmetic repairs by PACA. The trompe l'oeil cornice reminiscent of the original was painted above the theater entrance. In 1994 the Orpheum Children's Science Museum opened its doors to the public.
  The museum currently houses interactive exhibits and supports a variety of camps and clubs.
  
  The board of the museum has expressed interest in either relocation or expansion of the facility. Proposals for reuse of the facility were requested by the museum board in January 2009. However, by 2013, long-term plans for the museum involved expansion of the current facility.
caption: Uni High students (left to right) Shaleen Agrawal, Ben Carlton, and Ansel Higgs add a section of plastic tubing to the wind maze they're building.
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