Melrose Theatre
421 E. 161st Street,
Bronx,
NY
421 E. 161st Street,
Bronx,
NY
2 people
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The Melrose Theatre opened in 1916, on 161st Street near Melrose Avenue. It could seat 1129, and originally also had a rooftop theater that could accomodate close to 1100 more. In the 40s, the Melrose was converted into a banquet hall. Today, it functions as a daycare center.
Contributed by
bryan
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
Considering its age, this is still a handsome building, with some nice detail on the facade. To view some recent pics, click here:
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Two photographs I took of the Melrose Theatre in June 2005:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226224030/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kencta/226224754/
I biked by here the other day and noticed it too. It didn’t look to grand. I find it hard to believe that it sat more than 1,000 but the facade is very nice. Upon close inspection of one of the friezes, (the one in the picture didn’t show what I saw), there was a date of “March 19, 1921”. Was this the date of the decorative piece?
From Boxoffice magazine, 1/9/38:
The Melrose, 417 E. 161st St., is now being operated by Jacar Theaters, Inc. The Jersey City Holding Company, Inc., has acquired the Strand, East Orange, N.J.
Was there another Melrose Theatre in the Bronx? According to a report in The New York Times of August 12th, 1951, “At 150th Street and Melrose Avenue, the old Melrose Theatre has been replaced by a modern office building with stores. Tenants include the New York Telephone Company, Coca-Cola, New York Life Insurance Company, Junior Achievement, Cushman’s, and Joe’s Army and Navy Store.”
Historian Michael Miller’s list of Bronx theatres does confirm another Melrose Theatre, though the address is given as Melrose Avenue and East 155th Street (NYT claimed 150th). That Melrose had 400 seats and might have been a store-front conversion, since Miller’s list claims it dated back to the 1910s.