Trylon Theater
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
98-81 Queens Boulevard,
Rego Park,
NY
11374
18 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 207 comments
This theater is demoished. The entire block is gone
There’s now a GoFundMe to raise $80,000 to save the facade: https://www.gofundme.com/f/save-a-ny-art-deco-treasure-the-trylon-theater
Interview on CBS News: https://newyork.cbslocal.com/2021/11/04/rego-park-queens-demolition-building-ohr-natan-synagogue-rj-capital-holdings/
Interview on WPIX 11: https://pix11.com/news/local-news/queens/neighbors-rally-to-save-historic-diner-and-building-in-queens/
Petition & comment drive: https://www.change.org/p/rj-capital-holdings-save-historic-trylon-theater-ohr-natan-tower-diner-small-businesses-from-demolition
https://nypost.com/2021/11/03/nyc-neighbors-fighting-to-save-historic-ohr-natan-synagogue/
http://foresthillstimes.com/view/full_story/27827733/article-Push-to-save-Trylon-Theater—Tower-Diner
http://foresthillstimes.com/view/full_story/27830127/article-CB6-considers-demo-of-Trylon–Tower-Diner
https://qns.com/2021/11/forest-hills-and-rego-park-residents-reject-developers-plan-to-demolish-tower-diner-and-ohr-natan-synagogue/
Please sign our petition & post a comment, as well as share it with as many friends as possible. Power to the people who respect history, architecture, culture, religious values, preservation, art, & small businesses:
https://www.change.org/p/rj-capital-holdings-save-historic-trylon-theater-ohr-natan-tower-diner-small-businesses-from-demolition
December 26, 1939: This day in our community’s history is marked by the opening of the 1939 World’s Fair-inspired Art Deco Trylon Theater, where the earliest films were “The Wizard of Oz” & “Gone With The Wind” - http://www.foresthillstimes.com/view/full_story/27050355/article-The-Trylon–The-Theater-of-Tomorrow We will continue to advocate for the preservation & restoration of this landmark in the eyes of the majority. Let’s save the Trylon/Ohr Natan Synagogue & Community Center & the Tower Diner clock tower bank building. Take a stand for religious values, architecture, culture, history, art, historic preservation, morals, & small businesses. Power to the people who understand & value our communities most!
Community residents are opposing plans to demolish the former cinema and other buildings on the block for a 15-story mixed-use tower. News report can be found here
Queens is the absolute WORST borough for preservation. The Trylon was almost 100% original and was purposely destroyed
Thanks for your comments. The mosaics were intact and in good condition until their destruction in 2005. The mosaic ticket booth bearing the Trylon Monument was jackhammered in July 2005, and the mosaic and terrazzo floor which also depicted the monument and Art Deco chevrons was cemented over for a front that began disintegrating upon installment.
Tinseltoes, the instructions were for adding them to the theater’s photo page, which is what he did.
Thanks Native Foresthiller for adding these wonderful photos. Now when people click on this theater they will see the beauty that this insensitive group destroyed! The mosaics were absolutely stunning, and still in such wonderful shape. I remember seeing a movie at the trylon around 1995 or so, and the theater was like a time capsule. Time had been so kind to it till that point. And then the senseless deliberate destruction.
Thank you, Bway.
Hi everyone, I just uploaded numerous Trylon Theater photos under the photo thread. Please feel free to post your comments. The views range from the theater’s opening in 1939 to its closure in December 1999, and also include some views of the insensitive alterations in summer 2005.
Above the photo above, click “photos”. That will bring you to the photo page of whatever theater you are on (whether it be this one, the Ridgewood, or any theater you have photos of). Once on that page, scroll down, and click “add photo”, and add the photos you want to add.
How can I add my Trylon Theater photos directly to this thread? Please let me know. Thanks!
NativeForestHiller, you should consider adding your photos to the site here directly, just so people can see how beautiful the front and lobby were, and what was destroyed.
Native ForestHiller, seeing those photos posted again make me absolutely sick all over again, when this was all going on some years back. Absolutely disgusting what this religious group did to the front of this building. They could have used the building, and continued to benefit from the beauty that was there as their entrance, but they deliberately chose to go against the community and the outcries to not destroy and did it anyway. Karma to them.
It sounds great that they would want to restore the front, but it seems a bit ironic as this religious group blatantly without respect to the history of the area or building just needlessly destroyed the beautiful original mosaics of the theater’s front. For no reason at all!! It is that karma coming back to them. Ironically, if they had left all that history there, there may be more of a fight to let them stay.
Thank you for that lovely set of pictures.
The Queens Chronicle quotes potentially one of the developers/owners as stating the following:
Though the property, known as the Trylon Triangle was only recently acquired, Babaev said the company is already working on designs for the space.
“We’re thinking retail on the ground floor, a community center on the second floor and residential from three to eight,” he said. “We want to RESTORE the front entrance of the building to resemble what it looked like in 1939 when it opened. We want to bring back the essence of the building’s history and keep all of the tenants.”
http://www.qchron.com/editions/central/the-plot-thickens-at-ohr-natan-center/article_c5531a86-a026-5171-8b10-c78bfa77adf5.html
What are some of your immediate thoughts?
In addition, does anyone have historic photos (personal or company-produced) showing the Trylon Theater?
These are some Trylon Theater photos I uploaded to flickr over the years:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/8095451@N08/sets/72157623065121152
As I mentioned, ironically, the religious group would have had a better chance at staying there if they didn’t destroy all the beautiful features of the theater that made it worth landmarking. They deliberately just destroyed the whole front and lobby.
We’re supposed to feel sympathy for an organization (religious or not) that pretty much desecrated what could have been a theater landmark? No religious denomination is “guaranteed” permanent use of a facility. That is why most OWN the property they worship on.
I saw a story about this on the news and was ready to vomit. Not a word about the historic nature of the building…just matter-of-factly that the landlord was going to demolish and rebuild it and the congregation was going to have to find another home.
The Trylon is an example of just about EVERYTHING that can go wrong in theater restoration, building architecture, etc. Right from the moment the theater closed to today. From the deliberate destruction of the landmark lobby, mosaics, etc when they “renovated” into the synagogue, to now the building facing complete demolition. Ironically, had the synagogue group SAVED the historic features out front and the beautiful mosaics, it would have been a much better candidate for landmarking, and they may not be in this predicament they are in now….
UGH more history gone.
The theater is set for demolition.
The last movie I saw here was Fletch in or about 1985.
It’s still hard to look at this theater after the current owners willfully destroyed so much of it, and so needlessly. It still disgusts me. It was a great place, I remember it was like walking into a timewarp. Ironically, the last movie I saw there was around 1995, and it was very ironically, “A Stranger Among Us”, a movie starring Melanie Griffith who was a cop going under cover in a Hasidic Brooklyn Neighborhood and the culture clash that ensued…. Ironic.