Neighbors pressing for historic designation for former North Side porn theater
Thursday, September 06, 2007
By Diana Nelson Jones,
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The city’s Historic Review Commission yesterday heard a Central North Side preservationist’s case for designating the Garden Theatre a city landmark, ahead of any action a developer might take to alter it.
The theater, which had shown porn movies for more than 30 years, closed in February. It is now in the hands of the Urban Redevelopment Authority, which is considering proposals from developers for the Garden and a score of blighted buildings along the intersecting corridors of North Avenue and Federal Street.
“It’s the last of the nickelodeon-style movie theaters left in the city” with its interior intact, said David McMunn, president of the Mexican War Streets Society. The Mexican War Streets is a historic district that stops shy of including the Garden and the rest of Federal-North.
Mr. McMunn handed commission Chairman Michael Stern a stack of letters in support of his proposal and said, “All the neighborhoods would agree that it’s something we want to save for the next generations.”
After the meeting, he said, “Our neighborhood understands it’s a precious piece, but there are people who think, ‘Adult movie theater, take it away.’ That would be like tearing down Ford’s Theater because Lincoln was shot there.”
The public will have the opportunity to weigh in on the merits of the building’s historic status at a 1 p.m. Oct. 3 hearing in the Robin Building on Ross Street, Downtown. The commission voted to give the Garden preliminary determination status to protect it until a final decision is made. City Council has the final word.
Arthur Ziegler, president of the Pittsburgh History and Landmarks Foundation, said he backs the proposal.
“Oh yes,” he said, “it’s the anchor of that corridor, and it will become a major ingredient in the North Side’s collection of nationally significant cultural institutions.”
Built in 1915, the Garden is a mix of styles, with a classical exterior of terra cotta detailing, a 1930s-era vertical neon sign and a 1950s-era marquee and canopy. The original canopy was copper. Inside, wall sconces and chandeliers remain intact, and the rewind room, the splicing room and the 1950s-era projectors are all in place, Mr. McMunn said. “It’s like a time capsule.”
The building suffered extensive water damage from a leaky roof, but the Quantum Theater started the cleanup, preparing the theater for its June production of “The Collected Works of Billy the Kid.”
The Garden shares a block with an even older Masonic Hall, one of the first built, and an apartment building designed by Frederick Osterling, the illustrious late-1800s/early-1900s architect who also designed the Armstrong Cork factory in the Strip, the Arrott Building on Wood Street and the Union Trust Building on Grant Street, among many.
The Garden was fought over for years in court by the URA and the New Garden Realty Corp. Appeals stopped short of the U.S. Supreme Court in February when the URA negotiated a deal for $1.1 million.
The state Supreme Court had affirmed a lower court’s ruling in December that the URA did not violate the theater’s state or federal free-speech rights in its effort to seize it by eminent domain.
The URA had amassed all the buildings it wanted for redevelopment around it.
Mr. McMunn said the Central Northside Neighborhood Council, a partner in the URA’s redevelopment plans, favors the theater remaining a theater or other entertainment venue.
First published on September 6, 2007 at 12:00 am
Diana Nelson Jones can be reached at djones@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1626.