Hearing To Decide If Vacant South Philly Theater Can Be Demolished
By John McDevitt
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Royal Theater near 16th and South Streets in the Graduate Hospital neighborhood has been vacant for more than four decades.
The Philadelphia Historical Commission will hold a hearing next week to decide whether to grant a demolition request to make way for a multi-use building housing apartments and retail space.
The Royal Theater was built in 1919 and opened it's doors in 1920 as one of the first movie theaters for Philadelphia's black residents.
Entertainers like singer Bessie Smith use to pack the house in its hay day. The theater closed in 1970, and in the year 2000, music industry mogul Kenny Gamble's universal companies purchased it.
But in 2013 -- saying it will be economically unfeasible to renovate -- the company filed for a demolition permit.
The building is on the national register of historic places and needs permission from the Philadelphia Historical Commission to come down. That hearing takes place next week.
This past Tuesday, representatives of neighborhood and business organizations supported the new proposed design plans of multi-use building consisting of 45 apartment units and retail space.
