Harlem Grand Theatre
117 E. 125th Street,
New York,
NY
10035
117 E. 125th Street,
New York,
NY
10035
1 person
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The Boxoffice article Tinseltoes linked to says that William Hohouser was the architect for the late 1930s remodeling of the Harlem Grand Theatre. The original architect of the Harlem Strand, according to From Abyssinian to Zion: A Guide to Manhattan’s Houses of Worship, was George Mort Pollard.
Pollard also designed the Uptown Theatre at Broadway and 170th Street, and there was a theater in his most famous building, the Hotel des Artistes on Central Park West, but I don’t think it ever operated as a movie house.
Before it was the “Grand” it used to be the “Harlem Strand Theater.” The theater operated as the Strand from 1914-1917 when its owners were sued by Mitchel H. Mark Realty Corp (owners of the Strand Theater near Times Square) for trademark infringement.
Nice series of pictures you posted, nyyhec. You’re comment as to how this theater was originally operated as the Harlem Strand, should be repeated in this thread so that the site administrators know to add the AKA to this page.
In this photo, you can see how the vertical spelling out GRAND could have easily been converted from its original STRAND display, simply by replacing the first two characters at the top of the sign. Thanks for posting!
The reason why this particular church calls itself “La Sinagoga” is because their original location was in the basement of a synagogue on 109th Street between Madison and Park Avenues. It was a lot easier to say La Sinagoga instead of “Latin American Pentecostal Church” and it stuck.
Nothing that a church does surprises me anymore!
Interesting that a Pentecostal church would call itself “The Synagogue”.
Per Lost Memory’s prior post, the # of seats to this theater should be updated to reflect 1,432 seats. Current Use: Church
and a rather hideous looking one at that!!!!
Hi Lost Memory,
The link is working perfectly now- there was binary issue in my FTP/Upload..all corrected.
<img src=“http://www.seanrichards.com/harlemgrand2009.jpg”>
try it again
Heres a pic of what the site looks like today with the “LA SINOGOGA"
http://www.seanrichards.com/harlemgrand2009.jpg