Imagine my surprise when conducting a search and finding this posting about my Building. I am the current owner of this Theater – now known as Backstage Studio Productions ( BSP) located at 323 wall Street in Uptown Kingston. I would love to see some of the photos that Warren had up on Photobucket. The message says the photos are no longer there.
The history goes something like this. Built as a Vaudeville Theater in the late 1800’s, it was Cohen’s Vaudeville. The building was bought by Keeney and there was a Keeney’s Pub next door. He sold it to the Movie Chain, Reade’s and it became known as Reade’s Kingston Theater. The initials RKT are still in a plaque in gold leaf on the precenium. There was a condition in the Sale option of Reade’s that said the building could not be used as any kind of venue for 10 years. A non-compete clause, if you will. So when Standard Furniture bought the building, they bastardized the entire place. They poured a solid 11 in concrete floor – 12 feet above the original sloped floor to use as a furniture show room. The original floor became the room for furniture storage, with the poured concrete columns (18" in diameter) every 10 feet to hold up the concrete floor above it.
It seems the building never became a venue again because getting rid of 17,000 sq. ft of 11 inch thick poured concrete would cost more than the building. When I bought it in 2001, I decided there would never be permanent seats anyway, so seats could be on moveable risers. Every inch of the building was designed by John Storyk (premier acoustic designer). Rehearsal & recording studios, dance studio with 5 layers of sprung floor, a Lounge with Full Liquor Bar where Live Music takes place on a regular basis and the Theater Space is used for Live theater productions, Concerts, Parties (Halloween is a favorite), Weddings, Conferences, etc., etc. and is rented out to others for their own productions.
BTW: The parts of the Pipe organ are in the basement. I would love to get them out of there if anyone knows a good home for it. I would also love to speak to Robbie. Sandy Margolin had advised me to get in touch with you about some ideas we’ve been exploring. 845.338.8700 or
Imagine my surprise when conducting a search and finding this posting about my Building. I am the current owner of this Theater – now known as Backstage Studio Productions ( BSP) located at 323 wall Street in Uptown Kingston. I would love to see some of the photos that Warren had up on Photobucket. The message says the photos are no longer there.
The history goes something like this. Built as a Vaudeville Theater in the late 1800’s, it was Cohen’s Vaudeville. The building was bought by Keeney and there was a Keeney’s Pub next door. He sold it to the Movie Chain, Reade’s and it became known as Reade’s Kingston Theater. The initials RKT are still in a plaque in gold leaf on the precenium. There was a condition in the Sale option of Reade’s that said the building could not be used as any kind of venue for 10 years. A non-compete clause, if you will. So when Standard Furniture bought the building, they bastardized the entire place. They poured a solid 11 in concrete floor – 12 feet above the original sloped floor to use as a furniture show room. The original floor became the room for furniture storage, with the poured concrete columns (18" in diameter) every 10 feet to hold up the concrete floor above it.
It seems the building never became a venue again because getting rid of 17,000 sq. ft of 11 inch thick poured concrete would cost more than the building. When I bought it in 2001, I decided there would never be permanent seats anyway, so seats could be on moveable risers. Every inch of the building was designed by John Storyk (premier acoustic designer). Rehearsal & recording studios, dance studio with 5 layers of sprung floor, a Lounge with Full Liquor Bar where Live Music takes place on a regular basis and the Theater Space is used for Live theater productions, Concerts, Parties (Halloween is a favorite), Weddings, Conferences, etc., etc. and is rented out to others for their own productions.
BTW: The parts of the Pipe organ are in the basement. I would love to get them out of there if anyone knows a good home for it. I would also love to speak to Robbie. Sandy Margolin had advised me to get in touch with you about some ideas we’ve been exploring. 845.338.8700 or