New Granada Theatre
2009 Centre Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
2009 Centre Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
3 people
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Associated Theatres
Architects: Louis A.S. Bellinger
Nearby Theaters
News About This Theater
- Mar 3, 2009 — Funding to rescue New Granada Theatre
- May 14, 2007 — Heinz to grant money to revitalize Pittsburgh's New Granada
This historic theatre in Pittsburgh’s Hill District section was opened in 1927 as the Pythion Temple of the Knights of Pythias. From the 1930’s it was used as an African American movie theatre named New Granada Theatre and continued in this use into the 1970’s. The building also operated as a jazz club.
The building still sits abandoned. Community leaders were looking to save the theatre and restore it. However, it has apparently been gutted internally, but restoration continues in 2025.
Contributed by
Rick Aubrey
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Recent comments (view all 17 comments)
MLM— I can’t contribute much, though I would like to give something. This theatre is truly one of my favorites.
A related story— I hung the photo I posted above in an art show I was in a earlier this year, the curator loved the photo so much that I gave it to her to hang in her gallery.
MLM- do you have a website so I can spread the word?
Here is a 1947 photo showing the vertical. It would appear that the theater may have received a moderne style make over sometime in the late 1930’s.
View link
I have indications the theater is at 1909 Center (as listed above by Rick Aubrey) and 2009-13 Centre. Can anyone corroborate either? News stories and columns routinely ignore the address.
The structure opened in 1927 as the Pythian Temple of the Knights of Pythias. In the 1930s the building was sold to the owner of a nearby Hill District moviehouse called the Granada. He renamed the temple the New Granada. It had 850 or 920 seats, depending on one’s source.
The film house was owned by Associated Theatres in the 1960s (perhaps earlier, too) and early 1970s, but instead of including it the daily newspaper directory with other Associated theaters, the New Granada’s daily ad was listed alphabetically in the directory of Pittsburgh’s independent neighborhood theaters.
The New Grenada outlasted the Hill’s other longest-standing moviehouse, the Roosevelt at 1822 Centre.
In the New Grenada’s final years, it was open three days a week – not Fridays through Sundays, as you might expect, but Saturdays through Mondays. The owners had found attendance was weak on Fridays but felt they needed a three-day “weekend” for booking movies.
Given that it has been closed, deteriorating inside and out and, sadly, an eyesore for more than three decades (even longer if you consider how it was run into the ground during its last several years of operation), the New Granada has almost surely set the local record as the theater to remain erect the longest without being razed or used for any other commercial purpose.
Better it should linger in limbo than be sacrificed like hundreds of other Pittsburgh moviehouses.
Thanks Ed for the informative update.
Listed as the New Granada at 2009 Centre Avenue in the 1955 yellow pages. Phone was GRant 1-5883.
Renewing link.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/ctlcln
“The 35,000-square-foot building, which is owned by the Hill District Community Development Corporation, has been the site of recent preservation efforts totaling close to $1 million. Within the last 18 months, the interiors were gutted, the exteriors was stabilized and a new roof was installed. A full renovation and build-out would cost between $9 and $11 million, says Dan Holland with [the Young Preservationists' Association].”
View link
The address is wrong. It’s either 2009 as pointed out many years ago, or 2007 as Wikipedia states. I saw this in September 2009, and I must have just missed the wonderful, shabby, grimy marquee. The whole thing was covered in scaffolding and the marquee had been ripped off, so I only got a few shots of one of the entries. Work is moving very slowly. The scaffolding reappears in the 2024 streetview, after a long absence.