Boulevard Theatre
82-22 Northern Boulevard | also 82-10 Northern Boulevard, 82-20 Northern Boulevard, 33-02 83rd Street | Jackson Heights | built 1925
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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.
- 1926
The Boulevard Theatre opens as a playhouse for Broadway tryouts and recently closed shows
The 1,839-seat Boulevard Theatre, which stood here, was part of the Grob & Knobel circuit and was designed as a playhouse. From Monday to Saturday it staged shows on their way to Broadway and productions that had finished their Broadway runs; on Sundays the bill was vaudeville plus a feature film.
“Designed as a playhouse it showed pre-openings headed for Broadway and shows closed out on Broadway.”
Source: Wikipedia
- 1926
Herbert J. Krapp gives the Boulevard the only full stage and balcony among three Grob & Knobel theaters
Grob & Knobel built three theaters in northwest Queens to designs by Herbert J. Krapp, and the Boulevard, which stood on this lot, opened in November 1926. It was the only one with a stage big enough for a live play or musical, and the only one with a balcony; the Sunnyside put all its seats on a raked floor, and the Jackson had a raised stadium section at the back.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 1928
William Fox buys the circuit and sublets the Boulevard to playhouse operator Louis Werba
When William Fox acquired the Grob & Knobel theaters in 1928, he kept the Boulevard, the theater that stood here, as a legitimate stage by subleasing it to Louis Werba, who also operated theaters for plays in Brooklyn, upper Manhattan and the Bronx. The Depression drove both Fox and Werba into bankruptcy, and under Skouras Theatres the Boulevard became a double-feature movie house.
Source: cinematreasures.org
- 2021
The old Boulevard Theatre, saved once from demolition, is torn down
Cut into three screens in the early 1980s, the Boulevard later closed and sat empty for at least a decade while neighbors fought the owner's demolition plan. It was then sold and became the Natives Restaurant-Theater-Bar, serving Queens' Hispanic community, with the bar in the old lobby and the three auditoriums used for plays and concerts. Closed in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the building was demolished in early 2021.
Source: cinematreasures.org
Further reading
- Boulevard Theatre (Queens)Wikipedia
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