Grand Theater

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

The theater was developed by Benjamin Franklin Keith and Edward Albee of the Keith–Albee vaudeville circuit, which bought the site in 1927. The Keith–Albee Theater, as it was known, opened on Christmas Day 1928 and originally operated as a vaudeville theater. In the 1930s, the theater was renamed the RKO Keith's and began showing movies. The theater continued to prosper after World War II in spite of a decline in New York City's large neighborhood movie palaces during that time. It began to decline in the 1960s and was eventually divided into a three-screen multiplex in 1977. The RKO Keith's was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) designated most of the theater as a New York City interior landmark in 1984, but the New York City Board of Estimate curtailed the LPC's designation to cover only the ticket lobby and grand foyer.

In Their Own Story

Despite the landmark designations, the RKO Keith's closed after local developer Thomas Huang acquired the theater in 1986. Over the next three decades, it went through several efforts at redevelopment. After the theater was partially destroyed in 1987, Huang was forced to stop work on his project, and work stalled for over a decade. During this time, the RKO Keith's interior continued to deteriorate, and residents and politicians raised concerns over Huang's treatment of the theater. The RKO Keith's was sold to Shaya Boymelgreen in 2002, then to Patrick Thompson in 2010 and Jerry Karlik in 2014; all three men unsuccessfully tried to redevelop the site. After Chinese developers Xinyuan Real Estate bought the theater in 2016, most of the theater was finally demolished from 2020 to 2021. Xinyuan made plans to replace the theater with a condominium development, which would preserve the theater's ticket lobby and grand foyer.

Reader's Guide

The RKO Keith's Theater was at 135-35 Northern Boulevard, at the intersection with Main Street, in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The site, at the northern end of Main Street, is near Flushing's central business district. As of 2020, most of the theater was being demolished and replaced with 269 condominium apartments, developed by Xinyuan Real Estate. The ticket lobby and grand foyer were temporarily removed and are planned to be reinstalled in the condominium development's lobby. The theater was designed by architect Thomas W. Lamb in a Spanish Baroque Revival style and opened in 1928. The RKO Keith's was originally conceived as a venue for vaudeville, which in the late 1920s was competing with films; as a result, the design was more elaborate than that of older theaters. The building's facade on Northern Boulevard was relatively plain, with a curved marquee facing Main Street (later replaced with a horizontal advertising board). The ground story had storefronts, while the other stories had a brown facade, with marble spandrel panels between the second- and third-story windows. Inside, a ticket lobby and grand foyer led to the double-level auditorium. Four lounges also existed in the theater: two from the ground-level foyer and two from a mezzanine promenade below the auditorium's balcony. The interior was ornately decorated in plaster and wood.

Did You Know?

• The RKO Keith's opened on Christmas Day 1928 as the Keith–Albee Theater, a vaudeville house.
• The auditorium was designed as an atmospheric theater, one of only seven in New York City and 34 nationwide.
• The grand foyer originally featured a marble fountain with live goldfish, topped by a sculpture of Cupid flanked by dolphins.
• The theater's Wurlitzer organ, Opus 1975 with 3 manuals and 15 ranks, was donated to the College of the Ozarks in 1969.
• After the theater was partially destroyed in 1987, developer Thomas Huang was forced to stop work, and the project stalled for over a decade.

Architectural Vision and Design

Designed by the renowned Thomas W. Lamb, this Flushing landmark exemplifies the Spanish Baroque Revival style with an elaborate interior that starkly contrasted its plain three-story facade. The interior was richly adorned with gilded plaster decorations, carved columns, and woodwork, creating a lavish atmosphere for patrons. A defining feature was the atmospheric design of the auditorium, utilizing blue ceilings and specific ornamentation to evoke the feeling of being outdoors under a night sky. The ground floor included storefronts, while upper stories displayed brown facades with marble spandrel panels, balancing commercial utility with artistic ambition in Queens' central business district.

Operational History and Transition

Initially dedicated to live stage performances, it transitioned in the 1930s to become the RKO Keith's, shifting its focus entirely to motion pictures. Unlike many large neighborhood movie palaces that struggled after World War II, this theater managed to prosper for decades, maintaining its status as a cultural hub in Queens. However, the industry landscape shifted again in the 1960s, leading to a gradual decline.

Preservation Struggles and Landmark Status

Two years later, the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated most of the interior as a landmark, though the Board of Estimate subsequently limited this protection to only the ticket lobby and grand foyer. These decades of stagnation highlighted the complex challenges of preserving historic structures amidst urban development pressures.

Demolition and Adaptive Reuse

A critical component of this plan was the preservation and relocation of the protected ticket lobby and grand foyer. These ornate spaces, including the double-height square lobby with its blue plaster ceiling and the oval foyer that once held a marble fountain with live goldfish, were temporarily removed for restoration. The new design intends to reinstall these historic elements within the condominium's lobby, integrating them into modern retail and residential spaces. While the atmospheric auditorium and mezzanine promenade were lost to demolition, this adaptive reuse strategy ensures that key architectural artifacts of Thomas W. Lamb's vision remain visible in Flushing.