RKO Keith's Theater

117-09 Hillside Avenue | also 117-07 Hillside Avenue, 117-09 116th Street | Richmond Hill | built 1927

The city photographed every building for its tax records around 1940 and again in the 1980s. NYC Municipal Archives.

Written with AI from the source each entry cites, then fact-checked.

1929
R. Thomas Short designs the RKO Keith's movie theater on Hillside Avenue
Architect R. Thomas Short designed this RKO movie theater in the Neo-Classical Revival style, and it was built in 1929. Its two-story, three-bay front keeps the original horizontal marquee and terra cotta details. Inside, the orchestra level is about 100 feet deep and 99 feet wide, with a balcony and three tiered seating boxes on the north and south walls.
“It was designed by architect R. Thomas Short and built in 1929 in the Neo-Classical Revival style.”
Source: Wikipedia
1968
The RKO Keith's closes as a cinema and later becomes a bingo hall and flea market
The theater stopped showing films in 1968. In the years since, the building has served as a bingo hall and as a flea market. Its two-story front still carries the original horizontal marquee.
Source: Wikipedia
2003
The theater makes the State Register, but its owner blocks a National Register listing
In 2003 the former RKO Keith's was placed on New York's State Register of Historic Places. The property owner, however, refused to allow it onto the National Register of Historic Places. The listing recognized the 1929 Neo-Classical Revival building by architect R. Thomas Short.
Source: Wikipedia

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