Westgate Outdoor Theatre (Racine, Wisconsin)

Westgate Outdoor Theatre
General information
Type	Outdoor theater
Location	4801 Washington Avenue Racine, Wisconsin
Construction started	1948
Opened	April 30, 1949
Design and construction
Developer	J. & M. Enterprises (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

The Westgate Outdoor Theatre, previously known as the Racine Outdoor Theatre, was an outdoor and drive-in theater that operated at the southwest corner of Washington Avenue and Ohio Street in Racine, Wisconsin from 1949 to 1978. It was located on what is now the site of the Westgate Mall Shopping Center, and its function as a movie theater was replaced by the Westgate Cinema indoor theater across Perry Avenue.

History

In June 1948, the 35-acre site was purchased by J. & M. Enterprises of Minneapolis, Minnesota, which announced that it would immediately begin work on constructing an outdoor drive-in theater with state-of-the-art features and a planned capacity of approximately one thousand cars. Located in the formerly rural but rapidly suburbanizing area of Mygatts Corners, the site was immediately outside Racine's city limits at the time. In December 1948, the Nelson Walker homestead along Washington Avenue was demolished more than a century after it was built, in order to make way for the theater's ongoing construction. During construction, on March 19, 1949, an oil burner in the production booth exploded, causing approximately $2,000 in damage but no injuries.

The Racine Outdoor Theatre opened on April 30, 1949, with a showing of the 1948 musical romantic comedy film Romance on the High Seas. In September 1950, a safe containing $400 was stolen from the theater, which was found empty and damaged "beyond repair" a month later along Four Mile Road.

In September 1951, the theater was acquired by the Papas-Spheeris Company, which began major renovations in advance of the 1952 season. 650 new speakers were installed, post lights were added to improve visibility for drivers, and a children's playground was built at the base of the screen. Papas-Spheeris also renamed the venue, calling it the Westgate Outdoor Theatre. Westgate reopened on April 17, 1952, with a showing of the 1951 Western film Passage West. The theater, located in a low-lying area, was in the path of the natural sewage drainage of houses on Perry Avenue and in Mygatts Corners, and its operators had initially agreed to allow the water to flow across their property unobstructed. However, in April 1953, the theater's owners announced they would block the flow, and during a heavy rainstorm a few days later, their blockage caused the basements of nearby houses to be flooded. After complaints from residents and the town board of Mount Pleasant, the theater agreed to unblock the sewer until a permanent solution could be found. An attorney for the theater argued that blocking the drainage "was a dramatic method of pointing out to residents of the township that they have a definite sewage disposal problem, and that the time to get busy and correct it is now." The incident provoked the ongoing discussion of how to integrate the growing suburban areas into the city of Racine's sanitary sewage system, which had historically required the areas to be annexed into the city.

On the night of May 23, 1958, four children of the same Racine family suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning when their father ran their car's motor too long during a show at the theater. The children were administered oxygen at St. Mary's Hospital and were released in the morning.

In 1959, the theater added a go-cart attraction, the Mighty Midget Race Track, to its property. In March 1961, Papas announced plans to build Westgate Family Center, a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²) discount department store immediately north of the theater, at a time when such stores were a new concept in retailing. Although Papas owned the land extending north to Washington Avenue from the theater, his plan required purchasing land west of Perry Avenue from the Racine Water Department for part of the store's parking lot. The Water Department agreed to sell the land for $27,750. By July 1961, Papas had come to an agreement with the Chicago-based Jewel Tea Company grocery store chain, which would open its first department store in the new building. The planned store was downsized to 90,000 square feet (8,400 m²), allowing a larger parking lot in front of the store and making the land purchased from the Water Department unnecessary for parking. Instead, Papas announced that the land would be used for a motel with 65 to 70 units, with the possibility of an attached restaurant.

Construction on the Jewel store began in September 1961, requiring the Mighty Midget go-cart track, playground trampolines, and some of the theater's parking area to be removed.