George L. Rapp (1878-9/17/1941) Chicago, Illinios

George Rapp was a prominent Chicago theater architect, associated for a number of years with his older brother, C.W. Rapp (d.1926) under the firm name of Rapp & Rapp. He was the son of an architect, born in Carbondale, Illinois, and after a formal education at the University of Illinois, studied architecture abroad.

In Chicago, Mr. Rapp began work as the first assistant of Edmund Krause who was in the process of designing the plans for the Majestic Theatre. Soon after the turn of the century came the sudden expansion of the old Nickelodeum in store building to modern Moving Picture Houses, and in 1906 the Rapp brothers began work in that field of architecture. Their first successful building was the Central Theatre on Roosevelt Road in Chicago, followed by the Tivoli, Riviera, the Chicago, Uptown, Palace in the Bismark Hotel block, and the Oriental Theatre in the Masonic Building. Rapp and Rapp did not, however, limit their practice to theatre design. Under the firm name they prepared plans for the Fort Dearborn Bank Building at 203 North Wabash Avenue, and other large business and commercial buildings in Chicago.

Among important works of the firm planned for other cities was the large Paramount Theatre in New York, completed shortly after C.W. Rapp's death; the Ambassador Theatre and Office Building in St. Louis, Leland Hotel in Detroit, Keith's Theatre and Office Building in Cleveland, and later one of George Rapp's outstanding achievements, a building for the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He also served as Consulting Architect on New York's Radio City prior to his retirement in 1938.