12 Dec revisiting congress theater’s plenum chambers produces additional finds from the distant past

after a much-needed break from the bowels of congress theater, i spent the remainder of my time there traversing the auditorium’s upper balcony plenum chambers hoping to discover more objects discarded by moviegoers beginning around the time the theater opened in 1926. thankfully, i was in a very relaxed state of mind and used it to my advantage. i was pleasantly surprised by the number of matchbooks i found scattered among the clutter of chewing gum wrappers, cups, and other distracting debris.

highly informative cross-section schematic or diagram produced by carrier. their equipment was used in congress theater.

name plaque detail from one of the the well-maintained congress theater carrier brand hvac units with original “factory green” paint finish.

additionally, i ran across a pile of unmarked programs with the theater’s original operators (lubliner and trinz) displayed prominently at the top left corner. last, i’m always looking to find additional candy boxes and/or wrappers to add to the seemingly ever-growing collection of ones found during previous searches in the plenums. a few additional candy wrappers were found and lightly cleaned, documented, and added to the bldg. 51 museum archive.

several early to mid-20th century matchbook covers were found during themost recent visit to theater’s upper balcony plenum.