For the Record has followed progress of the Manhattan Building Plans processing and rehousing project in several articles, most recently, Manhattan Building Plans Project - The Seaport and Financial District. This week, For the Record highlights the original plans for the Loew’s Canal Street Theatre identified by project archivists.
31 Canal Street, Loew’s Canal Street Theater, 1940. Showing were the 1940 films Abe Lincoln in Illinois, a black & white bio-pic, and a Shirley Temple Technicolor fantasy The Blue Bird. Both films were box-office flops. Also showing was the racy 1940 crime drama Convicted Woman, and a 1939 comedy, Money to Burn. 1940s Tax Photograph Collection.
The Loew’s Canal Street Theatre is located between Essex and Ludlow Streets, in the heart of Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Long since converted to other uses, the building is a surviving example of the lavish movie palaces built by the Loew’s company in the 1920s and 30s throughout the city.
1934 Manhattan Atlas, showing block 297. Although the Theater auditorium fronted Ludlow Street, the narrow marquee entrance lobby was on Canal Street.
Designed by noted theater architect Thomas W. Lamb, it featured an elegant interior and a beautifully ornamented terra-cotta exterior. Although not as fantastical as the five “Wonder Theaters” built by Loew’s in the late 1920s, it does share many of the features Lamb used in his design for one of the Wonders, the 175th Street Theatre in upper Manhattan. The 175th Street venue retained its extravagant interior and has been featured in recent news stories as the site of the Tony Award ceremony this past June.
Front Elevation, Vestibules and Lobby Details [Design], Loew’s Theater, Canal & Ludlow Streets. Thomas W. Lamb Architect, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
Longitudinal Section [Design], Loew’s Theater, Canal & Ludlow Streets. Thomas W. Lamb Architect, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
Half Cross Sections [Design], Loew’s Theater, Canal & Ludlow Streets. Thomas W. Lamb Architect, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
Ceiling and Balcony Soffit, Loew’s Theater, Canal & Ludlow Streets. Thomas W. Lamb Architect, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
The Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the Loew’s Canal Street Theatre in 2010. The report narrative places the building within the context of the golden age of movie palaces. It describes how Loew’s Inc. founder Marcus Loew, born on the Lower East Side in 1870, started his entertainment company with vaudeville theaters and nickelodeons. He bought Metro Pictures in 1924 and merged it with Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B. Mayer Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer (MGM), a Hollywood studio that dominated the film industry for decades.
27-29 Canal Street, showing Loew’s Canal Street Theater marquee and sign. 1940s Tax Photograph Collection.
The building plans recently identified by municipal archivists depict the external features of the building described in the Landmarks report: “The ground floor consists almost entirely of a large rectangular opening that was once fitted with a series of doors flanking a central box office. The upper floors are completely clad in terra cotta with projecting piers running along the full height of the building’s corners. The blind openings on the second story, which are fitted with rare black terra cotta designed to mimic windowpanes, hide the mechanical equipment of what was originally the theater’s fan room. The most flamboyant ornamentation—which particularly distinguishes the Canal Street Theatre from earlier designs produced by Lamb’s firm—is reserved for the cornice line. Griffons, eagles, and fanciful sea monsters are interspersed with garlands, festoons, and other foliate motifs in an exuberant explosion of terra-cotta decoration.” The complete designation report is available from the Publications Portal in the Municipal Library.
In addition to the building plans, Municipal Archives collections also include the related Department of Buildings permit application file. The folder for the Loew’s Theatre (Block 297, Lot 1) contains New Building Application No. 404 of 1926, filed on August 23, 1926, signed by architect Thomas Lamb. The application specifications recorded the building would have a seating capacity of 2,324.
New Building Application, front, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
New Building Application, reverse, 1927. Department of Buildings collection.
There are no other applications in the folder for modifications to the building except an Alteration Application filed in November 1962. In the section asking the applicant to “State generally in what manner the Building will be altered,” owner Sidney Silberman wrote: “This building will no longer be used as a theatre. All seats have been removed. It is proposed to use the 1st floor spaces between aisles only, for storage of hardware. Part of 1st floor is now to be divided for Retail Store and Manufacturing. The marquise on Canal St. Side of building is to be removed.” The Landmarks report added to this sad ending by noting that the original entrance doors and frames have been removed and replaced with “an infill storefront covered by metal roll-down security gates.”
Alteration Application, page 1, 1962. Department of Buildings collection.
Alteration Application, page 2, 1962. Department of Buildings collection.
31 Canal Street, ca. 1985. 1980s Tax Photograph collection.
Project archivists have processed other works by architect Thomas Lamb. In addition to the Loew’s Canal Theatre, his Loew’s State Theatre at 1538 Seventh Avenue, the Strand Theatre at 231 W. 47th Street (both demolished), and the Julian Eltinge Theatre at 236 W. 42nd Street (now an AMC movie theater, originally a burlesque theater) are available. Other buildings designed by Lamb in the collection are located at 421 W. Broadway, 101 Prince Street (U.S. Post Office), 78-80 Walker Street and 92-94 Walker Street. Plans for buildings he designed as the partnership, Shreve, Lamb & Harmon, are the Bankers Trust Building at 14 Wall Street, the Insurance Company of North America at 99 John Street, the Western Electric Building at 222 Broadway, and the Vladeck Houses.
As noted above, the building received landmark status in 2010. Later that year, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation awarded $150,000 for a feasibility study to convert the space into a performance arts center. Ultimately, the project never came to fruition. The current status of the interior space is not known, but the original terra-cotta ornament around the Canal Street entrance is largely intact, hinting at the grandeur within. Perhaps the drawings in the collection will one day serve for a well-deserved restoration.