Melrose Theatre
421 E. 161st Street,
Bronx,
NY
10451
421 E. 161st Street,
Bronx,
NY
10451
2 people
favorited this theater
The Melrose Theatre opened in 1916, on 161st Street near Melrose Avenue. It could seat 1,129, and originally also had a rooftop theater that could accomodate close to 1,100 more. In the 1940’s, the Melrose Theatre was converted into a banquet hall. Today, it functions as a daycare center.
Contributed by
bryan
Want to be emailed when a new comment is posted about this theater?
Just login to your account and subscribe to this theater.
Recent comments (view all 4 comments)
Considering its age, this is still a handsome building, with some nice detail on the facade. To view some recent pics, click here:
View link
Two photographs I took of the Melrose Theatre in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226224030/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226224754/
I biked by here the other day and noticed it too. It didn’t look to grand. I find it hard to believe that it sat more than 1,000 but the facade is very nice. Upon close inspection of one of the friezes, (the one in the picture didn’t show what I saw), there was a date of “March 19, 1921”. Was this the date of the decorative piece?
From Boxoffice magazine, 1/9/38:
The Melrose, 417 E. 161st St., is now being operated by Jacar Theaters, Inc. The Jersey City Holding Company, Inc., has acquired the Strand, East Orange, N.J.