Liberty Theatre

A September 20, 1965, Boxoffice item said that the Liberty Theatre “…folded last week and was dismantled.” Dismantled, in Boxoffice jargon, usually means all the seats and equipment were removed. The item said the house had been built fifty years earlier, for the Rowland and Clark circuit, but was later sold to Warner Bros. and then operated by Stanley Warner before being sold to its last operator, Associated Theatres. The local redevelopment authority had bought the Liberty from Associated.

The Arcadia Press book “Pittsburgh’s East Liberty Valley” says the Liberty was demolished in 1968. There’s a photo dated 1915, which was probably the opening year, and the caption names Henry Hornbostel as the architect.

I’m surprised to learn that Hornbostel designed a theater— he’s best known for his grand Beaux Arts projects such as the original plans for Carnegie-Mellon University, and some two dozen of his buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s too bad that what was probably the only commercial theater he designed has been demolished.

In an item in the January 5, 1914, issue of the journal American Stone Trade, architect Henry Hornbostle, to whom two sources that I know of attribute the design of the Liberty, was said to have “approved” the plans of the Schenley Theatre, a project designed by the architectural firm of H.E. Kennedy & Company.

On the Sheridan Square Theatre page, a comment by Denis McNamara (probably this architectural historian, by the way) says that architect Edward J. Schulte, who was working in Kennedy’s firm during the period when these theaters were built, listed the Sheridan Square, Schenley, and Liberty on his resume.

Despite the source I cited in my earlier comment above, and the book about Hornbostel reviewed here, I’m now wondering what roles Hornbostel and Schulte each played in the design of the Liberty. Unfortunately, there is much more information about the Schenley than the Liberty on the Internet, so I’ve been unable to track down any references from the 1910s that would confirm Schulte’s involvement in the project.

I’ve found nothing published prior to 2002 that mentions Hornbostel in connection with the Liberty, either, and I still find it odd that so restrained a classicist as Horbostel would have designed a theater that, as described by the book review to which I linked, featured “…white, glazed terra cotta tiles framing an American flag composed of red, white and blue light bulbs.”

This Liberty Theater was, indeed, near the beginning of Frankstown Avenue in Pittsburgh’s once-thriving East Liberty neighborhood.

Opened December 27, 1915 with the Triangle films, “Edge of the Abyss” and “The Submarine Pirate.” All 1,467 seats were filled at the open. A $15,000 Austin organ played by E,J. Napier along with a Parlor Grand Chickering piano entertained the patrons. Raymond H. Allen was the manager on behalf of the East Liberty Theatre Co. Circuit that operated the theater.

The H.E. Kennedy & Co. teamed with Palmer and Hornbostel to achieve architectural plans that were said to be an homage to the NYC Strand in a more miniaturized form. It was Hornbostel that is credited for the exterior with its distinctive white, glazed terra cotta tiles that framed a patriotic World War I era American flag illuminated by red, white and blue light bulbs. The victim of both end of lease issues and eroding patronage, the Liberty shuttered just shy of its 50th anniversary and was bulldozed four years later after being defaced by vandals.

Closed at the end of its 50-year lease on September 6, 1965 with a triple feature of “Son of Katie Elder,” “Crack in the Mirror” and “Psycho.” The vacant venue was demolished beginning in November of 1968.