Brick bungalows and courtyard apartments run east to the lakefront clubhouse The Blues Brothers used as the Palace Hotel Ballroom.
What South Shore looks like
Streets here run mostly to brick two and three flat buildings and courtyard apartment blocks, with taller apartment towers scattered among them. The 6901 Oglesby cooperative rises eleven storeys in carved limestone and brick, its bay windows stepping up the corners in the English Gothic style. a few blocks north is a plainer three flat, yellow brick broken by ornamented window surrounds and a carved stone doorway.
and 71st Street carry the area's commercial strip, one and three storey storefronts along the sidewalk. The Metra Electric line runs at street level through the area, tracks and overhead wires down the center of the road, with a station platform on Yates Boulevard and grade crossing gates where the tracks meet Jeffery Boulevard and Stony Island Avenue.
, in the neighborhood's northwest corner, is wide front lawns and large houses set well back from the street with no alleys behind them. Farther south on Ridgeland Avenue, the is built in rusticated concrete block, its wide eaves and a deep porch balustrade carved in the same stone.
The sits at the east end of 71st Street, a red tile roofed clubhouse in brick and terracotta behind a tree lined drive and a formal garden of clipped hedges. Its rooms open through tall arched windows toward the lake, and a public beach runs along the water behind it.
Shot in South Shore
The Blues Brothers used the South Shore Cultural Center's own clubhouse as the exterior of the fictional Palace Hotel Ballroom, where the band plays its first big gig. The ballroom interior itself was filmed elsewhere, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.
The Blues Brothers, 1980
South Shore Cultural Center
Played the Palace Hotel Ballroom, 1980
The clubhouse's own exterior plays the fictional Palace Hotel Ballroom in the film's climactic concert scene. The ballroom interior itself was shot on a set built at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, a different real building rather than this one. Street View
What South Shore can double for
Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach's Mediterranean Revival clubs from the 1920s are close matches for the clubhouse's red tile roof and arched loggias, both fronted by a formal garden leading up to the building. Palm Beach's palm trees and brighter coastal light give it away in a wide shot, so a frame that keeps the garden hedges and the clubhouse's own arches in view holds the match better than a full establishing shot. Try searching Mediterranean Revival clubs now.
Sunnyside Gardens in Queens, New York
Sunnyside Gardens' brick courtyard apartment buildings share the same 1920s scale and brick construction as South Shore's own courtyard buildings, repeating the pattern of a shared entry opening onto an interior court block after block. Sunnyside Gardens is planned around common gardens shared by several buildings at once, so a frame that reveals a whole block's interior park gives it away. A single courtyard facade holds the match better than a wide shot. Try searching brick courtyard apartment buildings now.
Park Hill in Denver, Colorado
Park Hill's brick bungalows are close matches for the same low pitched roofs, raised entries and narrow lots, most built in the same 1900s to 1930s span. Denver's drier light and mountain views at the end of a street give it away in a wide shot, so a tighter frame on the bungalows and their own roofs holds the match best. Try searching brick bungalow roofs now.
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