Urban Theatre
1211 Broadway,
East McKeesport,
PA
15035
1211 Broadway,
East McKeesport,
PA
15035
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Additional Info
Architects: William G. Perry
Functions: Restaurant
Styles: Streamline Moderne
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Nicholas A. Malaons announced a new theatre for East McKeesport in 1939 to the plans of architect William G. Perry. Frederick Theater Enterprises operated the venue. The theatre was on the draft tale as the Loyal Theatre in honor of his late father, Charles Malanos who ran the Loyal Theatre in East Pittsburgh. Another theatre was scheduled to start construction just weeks later in East McKeesport but appears to have been scrapped.
The Malanos project’s excavation work began in the summer of 1940. The venue launched as the Urban Theatre on February 23, 1941. The programming was double feature film bills with three changes of program per week. But with television and competition from the Blue Dell Drive-In just 3.5 miles away came diminishing audiences.
St. Robert Ballamine Church began using the Urban Theatre for services beginning on April 12, 1950. The Malanos family opted out of the Urban Theatre at a 10-year lease closing permanently on May 26, 1951. The building was sold by Mrs. Malanos to the St. Robert Bellarmine Church. Following the church’s usage, the building later housed a restaurant in the 2020’s.
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Recent comments (view all 2 comments)
A history of Saint Robert Bellarmine church says that the Urban Theatre was located on Broadway, part of a site later occupied by a Rite Aid store. The Rite Aid in East McKeesport, now closed itself, used the address 400 Lincoln Highway, which is an alternate name of the cross street, Greensburg Avenue. Historic aerial views show that the theater was at the north end of the block, and extended back from Broadway to Fifth Avenue, the next street east. From the historic aerial views it looks like the auditorium section was demolished long ago, and the front section, which once house Irene’s Restaurant, was knocked down by 2004, when the Rite Aid was developed. The space occupied by the theater became part of Rite Aid’s parking lot.
There are no buildings on the theater’s site now and an exact address can’t be found, but using the address 2011 Broadway at Google maps will put the pin icon just about where the theater’s entrance must have been.
I mistyped the address in my previous comment. The theater was at approximately 1211 Broadway.