
1931 picture of the theater
This building is located at 117 Church Street Champaign, Illinois. It was originally built in 1905 . It The builders were Charlie and Elizabeth Russell. The architect was unknown. Its appearance was like standard early 20th century commercial.store front.
A simple retail layout. Commercial Design. The building was constructed entirely for retail. It featured large glass display windows on the.ground floor to showcase goods to people walking by on west Church Street.
Open Floor Plan. The interior lacked a stage,sloped floors or theater seating. It was just a wide, flat open commercial space designed to hold store counters and merchandise
Two Story Brick Structure. It was built as a sturdy multi story commercial block. The ground floor was used for commerce, while the upper floor provided space for storage or offices.
Early Retail Shops (1905–1915)
General Merchandise and Retail.Stores. Charles and Elizabeth Russell built the structure as a multi-story commercial and retail block
The First Retailers :The ground floor was divided into small storefronts that housed local retail stores and shops serving downtown Champaign
In 1915, Charles Fenton Hamilton had a large portion of Russell Building rebuilt. Construction of the new theater began in spring of 1915. The theater would be large enough to stage the best productions on the road. The.general Contractor for the job was A.W.Stoolman.. The plastering was done by a Danville firm. Frank Price had the decorating contract. J.W. Swartz of Urbana had the electrical contract. Roy Gallagher of Urbana had the steam fitting,, plumbing and and heating contract. The scenery was by Knox and Luny of Saint Louis. A Chicago firm furnished the leather upholstery chairs for the lower floor and the first balcony.
The house could seat 1420 people.(700 seats in the lower floor and the rest divided between the two balcolnies. The auditorium was wide but not very deep. The stage was unusually large. It was 34 feet deep and 70 feet wide
The Belvoir opened on November 23, 1915. The staff included owners manager C.F. Hamilton Eugene Russell treasurer\business manager,Emil Loehr stage manager Elmer Murphy in charge of properties, and Billy Casad in charge of orchestra.
The 1918-1919 season opened on.Monday September 9 1918 with a change in the name of theater. The old Belvoir became the Rialto.

Rialto Theater
Thae Rialto Theater was a historic movie palace located at 123 West Church Street in Champaign, Illinois. It was constructed in 1905 as the Russell Building. In 1915 it was repurposed into a theater called Belvoir. In 1918, it was renamed the Rialto in September
The original theater construction in 1915 was A.W. Stoolman. The original theater was completely gutted and rebuilt from the ground up.