The Madison Theatre opened in 1920 as a vaudeville and movie palace, one of the elaborate entertainment venues that prosperous American cities built in the early twentieth century to demonstrate their cultural aspirations. The building's facade and auditorium reflect the ornate commercial architecture of the period, when theater design was meant to transport audiences into a world more glamorous than their daily lives. It was designed to seat over a thousand people and served as Peoria's premier entertainment venue for decades.
The theater has had an eventful subsequent history — periods of neglect, closure, and partial renovation — but it remains standing and has been used for live performances and events. The exterior is one of the more distinctive pieces of early twentieth-century commercial architecture in downtown Peoria, and restoration efforts have kept it in use rather than allowing it to be demolished, as happened to many theaters of its generation.
The Madison Theatre opened in 1920 as a silent-picture house and is one of the better-preserved historic cinemas in Illinois. The building is an example of the elaborately decorated "movie palace" aesthetic that dominated theatre design in the late silent and early sound era — a time when going to the cinema was meant to feel like an event, and the building was as much of the entertainment as the film. The interior retains its original decorative plasterwork and the general feel of the period.
The Madison operates as a performing arts venue today, hosting concerts, comedy shows, and occasional film screenings rather than regular cinema programming. The building's restoration has kept much of the original interior character intact. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and represents Peoria's early-20th-century commercial ambition to have entertainment venues that matched what was on offer in Chicago.