Loew's Valencia Theatre
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
165-11 Jamaica Avenue,
Jamaica,
NY
11432
36 people
favorited this theater
Showing 26 - 50 of 480 comments
I heard that this theater’s patronage suffered with the closing of the Jamaica elevated in the mid 1970’s.
Click here for an exterior view of the Loew’s Valencia Theatre in 1930.
That suicide-committing patron was my grandmother (the gun owner was my dad). I was told that she’d shot herself in the Loge. Tinseltoes, what is the source of your information?
Marcus Loew was born on this date in 1870.
Thanks again Tinesletoes!
Well Bway,lets see it this theatre gets anymore hits!LOL.
LOL! I just saw the Valencia name, and said, “Wow, it’s a long time since I saw that one come up in my email updates!”
Relinking,just to stur up some interest.
Little known fact about the Valencia Theater in Jamaica, NY:
Charlie Parker performed there live in 1952. Hear him again here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYg0wQ5Th4w
Jamaica was also home to Illinois Jacquet. A church in the old Prospect Cemetery in Jamaica, now part of York College, is dedicated to Illinois Jacquet with jazz concerts from time to time
John Signorelli
Nice photo jwballer.
To get an idea of what the very first patrons to the Valencia may have seen on the screen is a 3 minute introduction of the first movie shown: White Shadows in the South Seas 1928 Youtube. Try it.
Lots of great pictures in this site.Will have to check it out if I ever go to Queens
Very cool theater, glad its still there,some things were meant to last.
Thanks Kong1911,I thought it was also Kangaroo meat.My mom would send me to the New York Blvd.Store for ham and sausages,back around 1946
My father had a butcher and grocery store in east new york brooklyn and sold merkel products for years. I thought there bacon was the best. Merkel’s building could be seen from the Long Island Railroad platforms at the Jamaica station. The Merkel Big sign above the building has been gone for many years but the building was there until about a year ago. One of the reasons Merkel closed down was that government inspectors found that to save money they were mixing horse meat into their products. If you go back that far you would have read that in the Long Island Press.
Doe’s anyone remember MERKEL’S MEATS located at New York Blvd.And Archer Ave.I think it closed in the late 50s
Near the end
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The date of 1982 is wrong because the vertical was long gone. I’m guessing the marqueee might say Cecil B. DeMilles Show on Earth?
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Here’s a Google street view of the Valencia:
Click here for link
Warren. It is just paint. The theater could have been completely gutted inside and used as a store. It could have been ripped apart and left to rot like the RKO in Flushing. Or worse, it could have been torn down and used for a parking lot. The Valencia faired very well. Perhaps not as tasteful as the Loews 175th St also used as a church, but WAY better than most of other theaters have met their end.
I strongly agree with you Luis. While not a perfect solution, these conversions are far preferable to the alternatives of demolition or radical alteration.
To your list of successful conversions let me add the old Woodside, which now functions as St. Sabastian’s RC Church. Both the the exterior and interior of this lovely building are certainly worth a look.
You are absolutely correct Luis. The Valencia may not be a theater, and it may be painted strange colors, but it’s beauty is all intact and still there. If this church hadn’s taken it over, it could have been actually demolished, or converted into retail, and destroyed. NOTHING is destroyed in the Valencia, and paint is just paint. The magnificent plaster work all survives.
Churches are one of the best after theater uses a theater building can get.
Wow, I’m an atheist and I couldn’t disagree with you more!
The beautiful building that housed the films that we went to see in our youth is still there. The work of all of the talented artisans there for all to see.
I wish that a church, even if it were the Scientologists, had taken over the Roxy or the Capitol or Loews 72nd St, or Proctor’s E. 58th St, or the Paramount or any number of spectacular palaces for conversion into a church. They didn’t, and they were all demolished. These thaters ARE GONE…..FOREVER!
Loew’s 175th Street theater, was also taken over by Revernd Ike’s church and lovingly and meticulously restored. It now houses frequent concerts. I have yet to attend, but I look forward to the day that I do. And when I do, I can thank the Reverend Ike for saving that spectacular theater for future generations.
It’s not realistic expect the old palaces to be preserved based on showing movies. In the entire New York Metropolitan area, home to over 18 Million people, there are just 3 palaces that just show movies; The Ziegfeld in Manhatan, Loews Jersey in Jersey City and The Lafayette in Suffern, NY.
Some of the old palaces like the New Amsterdam, the Broadway and the Gallo Opera House (aka Studio 54) are back to live theater. Radio City, Beacon, Apollo, Loews Paradise, St. George are all entertainment venues. Loews 175th is both a church and a concert hall. The Hollywood, Loews Elmwood, Loew’s Metropolitan, Kameo, Elmwood, and Stanley among others are churches who have maintained the integrity of the original theaters.
The Brooklyn Paramount was saved decades ago by LIU and converted to a gymnasium. They now have a brand new gym, and the possibility now exists that, someday, the Brooklyn Paramount can be reborn.
The landmark process is underway to try and save two other old theaters, The Ridgewood in Queens and The Paramount in Staten Island.
My point is, what made movie palaces special was the architecture and the atmosphere that it created when you went there to see a film. Even when it is no longer showing a film, the architecture and atmosphere remain and it is a window into the past that future generations should be able to see. It was a time when Where you went to see a film was (perhaps) more important than What you went to see.
I, for one, am grateful for each palace that is saved, even if the saviour (pardon the pun) is a church.
p.s. Loews’s Kings and the RKO Keiths Flushing sit in ruins waiting to be saved. While I would much prefer to see these historic palaces returned to us as entertainment venues, I would settle for a religious one just to save the buildings.
The answer should NEVER be “just tear it down” because that is truly forever.
Converting it into that church was the same as demolishing it. It’s gone. One way or the other, it’s gone.
It most definitely is NOT demolished. Though I do feel it was desecrated (pun intended) by the resident church by painting the interior in bright colors and draping the nudes so as not to offend churchgoers.
Even so, the Valencia remains one of the most beautiful theaters ever built and I am grateful to the church for having saved it back in the terrible late 70’s. Otherwise, it may have suffered the fate of so many other palaces: demolition.
I believe it’s up and running as a church, with most of its glory intact. Not demolished.