FareWellington: A final goodbye

As of September 12, 2024, TimeLine has officially moved out of 615 W. Wellington Avenue—our home of 25 years. With construction beginning on our new building in Uptown, we’re on the precipice of launching TimeLine’s next era. But before we do, we wanted to celebrate all that our quirky building in Lakeview East has given us over the years.

ABOUT 615 | BEFORE & AFTER | FAREWELLINGTON MEMORIES |

ARCHIVE PROJECT | HOW TO SUPPORT

ABOUT 615 W. WELLINGTON …

The following is an excerpt of words shared by Artistic Director PJ Powers at our FareWellington Open House event on August 4, 2024.

This building dates to 1910, and from its inception, it was committed to being a community center. During the Centennial celebration 14 years ago, the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ (WAUCC) spoke about how that focus was an important part of the founding vision. Reportedly, the sermon in its first worship service was entitled “Church as Community Center.” The space on the second floor of the building that we’ve called home, known as Baird Hall, was specifically included in the design of the church so there would be a space for cultural events. Initially, during construction of the sanctuary, church services were held in Baird Hall.

Since then, and preceding TimeLine by decades, at least a dozen community and professional theaters have had their home in Baird Hall, and the building—as community center—has hosted countless guest speakers, films, political candidates, forums, music concerts, and neighborhood town halls on various issues.

In 2002, as the late, great Richard Christiansen was writing his final columns as theatre critic for the Chicago Tribune, the newspaper published a four-part retrospective called “40 Years On The Aisle.” In it, he wrote about the rise of the Off-Loop theatre movement in the 1950s, ’60’s and ’70’s, specifically calling out Baird Hall alongside Second City, Hull House Theatres, Body Politic, Organic, Kingston Mines, and more.

In the 1960s, Baird came to prominence with the Chicago City Players, and they were followed by companies known as Magic Circle, Phoenix Productions, Classic Theatre Company, Lionheart Gay Theatre, Prologue Theater Productions, Foxworx Theatre Company, and Halcyon Repertory Company. Then, in the 1990s, a six-year residency began for European Repertory Company, led by Yasen Peyankov, who is now a member of Steppenwolf’s ensemble.

Also, in the 1990s before TimeLine made a home here, European Rep rented the space out for a very notable production of Angels In America, directed by David Cromer for Journeymen Theatre.

There also were perhaps less notable productions by a short-lived company called Two Planks And A Passion, started by TimeLine Associate Artistic Director Nick Bowling and one of his classmates named Eric Kershner, while they were still students at DePaul, in what became a precursor to Nick starting TimeLine a few years later.

Fast forward a couple years, and TimeLine, preparing for our second season, rented Baird Hall from European Rep for a New Years Eve party in 1998, called Step Into Time. We rented the theatre for a span of three days, threw a great party, and went on our merry way. To our great surprise, five months later, a call came from someone at WAUCC in spring 1999 saying that European Rep was moving to another space. And the church was so impressed with us over our rental that they invited us to become the new resident theatre.

At that point, we had produced two plays in two years, and we had an annual budget of around $14,000. Rent alone for the next year was going to greatly exceed that. It was a leap of faith. We said yes to the church, signed a lease, planned a season for 1999-2000, and the rest, they say, is history—putting TimeLine metaphorically and literally on the map.

Since moving in 25 years ago, TimeLine’s tenure seems to be the longest and most prolific period for a theatre company in the space. In Baird Hall, we’ve produced:

77 of our 92 shows
12 world premieres
38 Chicago premieres

In doing this research, I was struck by the initial idea that WAUCC had in 1910—“Church as Community Center”—as we prepare a new venue up the street and carry forth the legacy of Baird Hall with TimeLine’s new home envisioned to be: Theatre as Community Center.

BEFORE & AFTER …

Thanks to the incredible hard work of our entire staff and moving crews, but especially our Director of Production, Maggie Fullilove-Nugent—who took on the near-impossible task of clearing out our stacked-to-the-gills home of 25 years—we’ve fully moved out. And we’ve never seen this building so empty! Flip through the photo album below to see some of 615’s well-loved spaces, before and after:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

FAREWELLINGTON MEMORIES …

As TimeLine ended our 25-year residency at Baird Hall, we reflected on not just the countless memories we’ve made during our time here, but on what this space has meant to Off-Loop Chicago theatre since at least the mid-1960s, and as a community hub for more than 100 years. We asked our community to share with us all that 615 West Wellington Avenue has been. You can explore the collected memories here …