Royal Theater
Houston Street,
San Antonio,
TX
78202
Houston Street,
San Antonio,
TX
78202
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From the early 1900s a view of Houston Street along with the Royal & Princess Theaters in San Antonio.
I’ve found another reference to the Royal Theatre, this in the October 10, 1908, issue of The Billboard, in the magazines “Playhouses” section:
It’s possible that the Royal Theatre on Houston Street was closed in or by 1920. A contributor to the Wikipedia article about the Majestic Theatre found this bit of information, and cites a 1988 article in the Theatre Historical Society’s journal Marquee as the source:The wording doesn’t make clear if the deed restriction was part of the lease by Nix to Hoblitzelle, or part of the sale by Enterprise Company to Nix, or both. If the deed restriction was part of the sale, and included the portion of the property on which the Royal Theatre sat, then the house must have been closed when the sale was made. The Royal must also have been closed if it was included in the lease agreement.But I can’t think of any reason why either Nix or Enterprise Company would place the deed restriction on the property unless they were either still operating the Royal themselves, in which case it must not have been included in the original lease, or if they had opened another theater nearby and wanted to prevent new competition at this location.
Also, I’ve found that architect H. L. Page’s first name was Harvey.
As CSWalczak’s comment of October 25, 2010, says, and the photo Don Lewis linked to on November 1, 2010, shows, the Royal Theatre on Houston Street was on part of the site now occupied by the much larger Majestic Theatre.
The Royal had to have been demolished by 1929. That means that the theater in the current description, still operating in 1943, must have been one of the two other Royals mentioned in Bob Jensen’s comment of October 31, 2010.
The October 7, 1908, issue of the trade journal Engineering-Contracting had an item, partly unreadable in the scan, in its “Contracts Let” column that said (questionable words in parentheses): “San Antonio, Tex— Theatre.â€"P. T. (Shirly?) for erecting Royal Theatre for H. J. (Moore?) H. L. Page, Architect."
The arch in the photo that CWalczak linked to appears to be an example of the Moorish style that was briefly in vogue around the turn of the century. I notice that a somewhat Spanish-Moorish-looking geometric design also decorated the ceiling of the auditorium. That must have been the style Mr. Page was going for. I’m surprised they didn’t call the theater the Alhambra.
A MIGHTY HILLGREEN-LANE THEATER PIPE ORGAN was installed in this theater. It was a 2 manual/19 rank, Opus 628, installed in 1921 and cost $3,750. The Hillgreen-Lane & Company was out of Alliance, Ohio. Does anyone know what happened to the organ?
I found an address of 218 East Houston Street for the Royal Theater, but the HUGH Majestic Theater which is still operating is at 208 East Houston Street and it was built in 1929??
Other Royal Theaters:
1112 Texas Avenue
211 Main Avenue
Need an address, more info and photos.
Corrected URL: http://www.satheatres.com/Royal_Theatre.php
Unless San Antonio had two theaters at different times called the Royal, this theater’s entry at San Antonio Theatres: Now and Then [url=http://www.satheatres.com/Royal_Theatre.php]http://www.satheatres.com/Royal_Theatre.php[/url indicates that it was long gone by 1943; it was razed to make way for the Majestic, which opened in 1928. There are two pictures on that webpage.