Royal Theatre

Joe Vogel on September 28, 2026 at 8:19 pm

Apple Maps can’t find this address. It should be changed to 1111 4th Street. The building is still standing and occupied by a real estate office. The 250-seat Royal first appears in the FDY in 1936. In 1926 there was a 250-seat house called the Lincoln and a 600-seat Opera House. Only the Lincoln is listed in 1927 through 1929. Fulton is not listed in 1930, but in 1931 a 230-seat Pastime Theatre appears. It is listed through 1935, usually as closed. I suspect the Lincoln, Pastime and Royal were all the same house. The minor discrepancy in seating capacity could reflect a more accurate count by whoever was operating it as the Pastime.

The earliest mention of the Lincoln I’ve found in a trade journal was from 1924, but Google’s AI suggests it might have been built in 1915. This is plausible, as Fulton does not appear in the 1914-1915 AMPD. The 600-seat Opera House from 1926 was likely the 600-seat Fulton Opera House listed in the 1914 Gus Hill guide, but the 450-seat Fulton Theatre listed in the 1897 Cahn guide might have been a different house. The Cahn Guide says the 1897 house had a stage 40 feet between side walls, while the Hill guide lists a 52-foot wide stage for the 1914 house. The Opera House is listed again in the 1921 Cahn-Hill guide.