Nixon Theater
28 S. 52nd Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
28 S. 52nd Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
3 people
favorited this theater
The Nixon Theater was built in 1910. The architect is listed as John D. Allen. This theater was demolished in 1985.
Contributed by
Lost Memory
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
Here are expanded views of two PAB thumbnails posted by Lost Memory in 2005. The photos are from the Irvin Glazer collection:
http://tinyurl.com/335do3
http://tinyurl.com/3y5p89
The movies shown in the second photo were released in 1971.
Hello, I am Genaya Reid the grand daughter of Frank & Ida May Brown the last owners of the Nixon movies theater. I wanted to thank the members who posted pictures and information about the movie theater.
God Bless
This is a photo of the building at the address today. It’s indistinct in the photo, but it says “Nixon Building” at the top. Is it possible that the theater building is still standing? If so, a lot of the architectural details seen in the older photos have been removed.
http://tinyurl.com/3ntmwz
The building in that Google photo has an address of 24 S. 52nd Street and doesn’t look like the building in the Irvin Glazer photo. The PAB site claims that the building was demolished in 1984.
The Payless shoe store to the left of the Nixon Building is listed at 32 S. 52nd Street. I do agree that this building doesn’t resemble the theater building, though. The Nixon family was prominent in theater circles in the early part of the twentieth century, so this may be a coincidence.
The family might have owned a number of buildings on the block, but I don’t think the building in the Google photo is the former theater building.
Here is a 1914 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/pckxy6
Here is a September 1973 photo from Temple U:
http://tinyurl.com/ylcadl3
My parents went on their first date at the Nixon in 1959; they saw “Blackboard Jungle” with Glen Ford, Anne Francis and a young Sidney Poitier. Must’ve been a good date they had 3 kids and remained married for over 30 years until my father passed; thanks for posting these pictures!