Arcana Theatre

Joe Vogel on February 18, 2012 at 1:26 am

Here is an item from the August 26, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World which might be about this theater under one of its early names:

:The Evaline theater, at Penn avenue and Evaline street, has been taken over by George Logue, a well known exhibitor of the North Side. New equipment is being installed and the house redecorated in preparation for opening in the near future. The Evaline was built about two years ago by Page Brothers, a real estate firm, and was later sold out to Harry Mintz. It was conducted by Mr. Mintz until last summer; since which time the theater has been dark. The Evaline is a medium sized house and excellently located in a populous residential section.“

The building at 5139 Penn Avenue is obviously very old, so if this was the correct address of the Arcana Theatre I don’t think it has been demolished. It’s a very small building, though, and not what I would call a "medium sized house” as the MPW article called the Evaline Theatre, but perhaps the standards were different in 1916 Pittsburgh.