Royal Theater

1011 22nd Street South,
St. Petersburg, FL 33712

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jflundy
jflundy on June 14, 2009 at 3:10 pm

The St. Petersburg Times of 25 May 1949 contains an ad calling this venue “South’s Finest Colored Theater”.

Featured on that date a double feature of “Each Dawn I Die” with James Cagney and “Dark Horse”.

Link to Page 25 St. Petersburg Times of that date:

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lostmemory
lostmemory on February 20, 2009 at 11:21 am

This site has a photo.

lostmemory
lostmemory on August 30, 2008 at 11:35 am

Here is a website for the Royal.

Broan
Broan on November 14, 2007 at 9:12 am

Much improved!

lostmemory
lostmemory on November 14, 2007 at 9:07 am

The Royal Theater looks much better in this photo. And here is a close-up view.

Broan
Broan on June 19, 2005 at 11:59 am

“In St. Petersburg, Fla., however, the c. 1948 Royal Theatre, a designated local landmark, is undergoing a $600,000 renovation funded by block grants and private donations. Fitted with a marquee, the theater was one of the city’s few movie houses for African-Americans. "The community still fondly recalls going to the Royal with their soon-to-be husbands and wives on dates,” says Rick Smith, the city’s preservation planner. “So it has as much a social and cultural affiliation as an architectural one.”"

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lostmemory
lostmemory on March 17, 2005 at 8:11 pm

“Built in circa 1948, the Royal Theater was designed by Philip F. Kennard for the Gulf Coast Entertainment Company. The Royal Theater is one of the few remaining "Quonset Huts” within St. Petersburg. As a lightweight, portable, and economic building type, these huts are inherently rare pieces of architecture. The huts were designed by the George A. Fuller construction company of New York which used a British prototype from the First World War called a “Nissan” hut. The Fuller company put designers Peter Dejongh and Otto Brandenberger to work. Within a month they had set up a production facility near Quonset Rhode Island, and started producing two basic models. The smaller model was 20 feet wide and 48 feet long. The larger was 40 feet by 100 feet. Using these basic modules, around 170,000 Quonset huts were produced during the war. These basic units were used singly and in combination to accommodate everything from barracks and M.A.S.H. units to warehouses and airstrip facilities".

Photo of the Royal theater is here:
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