Petition Launched to Protect The Warehouse Chicago, House Music’s Birthplace

A petition has been launched to protect the building that formerly housed Chicago’s The Warehouse nightclub. Also known as the birthplace of house music, the now-closed venue remains a nightlife landmark for clubbing culture worldwide. 

Titled ‘Save the Warehouse!,’ the petition urges people to “recognize, protect, and celebrate the three-story industrial building” before it’s too late. Since its closure in the 80s, The Warehouse has been left in what is now named ‘Frankie Knuckles Way’.

But that might soon change. According to the petition, Chicago’s The Warehouse building changed ownership in December.

While the listing acknowledged the nightclub’s rich history, it also mentioned potential demolition as similar venues had the same fate.

Now standing at 5,400 signatures, the petition stresses how house music changed the world and how “it all began at The Warehouse, where DJ Frankie Knuckles created it.”

“Despite persistent outreach by Preservation Chicago, the new ownership has been unresponsive, and plans for the building’s future remain unknown.”

Chicago’s The Warehouse saw daylight in 1977 when the disco era started to fizzle out. A reference point for that time’s black LGBT+ communities, the nightclub hosted DJ Frankie Knuckles as its first resident artist. 

As one of house music’s pioneers, Knuckles would play soul, R&B, gospel, disco, and electronic sounds – a mix now considered house music’s early foundation. 

The Warehouse’s resident DJs coined the ‘house music’ term as an abbreviation of the nightclub’s name. When Knuckles left the Chicago nightclub’s audio decks to open his nightlife venue, The Warehouse rebranded as Muzic Box.