De Luxe Theater
3303 Lyons Avenue,
Houston,
TX
77020
3303 Lyons Avenue,
Houston,
TX
77020
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@train2cri Our class is doing a project on the Deluxe Theatre since it is opening. Would we be able to contact you? My teacher’s email is .
The DeLuxe Theater has been under renovation since 2012 and is being restored into a state-of-the-art 125 proscenium theater, with adjoining multipurpose space. The facility is owned by The City of Houston and will be jointly operated by The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation and Texas Southern University. For more information on the restoration, you can visit the official website: www.thedeluxetheater.com, which should be up by the end of this month. You can also find us on FaceBook at www.facebook.com/deluxetheater. I’ll try to post some updated pictures when I can. :–)
The De Luxe was built by my father and my uncle just before WW 2 began. Robert and Mitchell Lewis. It opened in 1941. Soon after opening my dad was drafted. My Uncle Mitchell managed the theater and my mom, Anne (Schultz) Lewis , ran the concession stand till the war was over. The 5th ward had a varied community of peoples. My mom lived on Schwartz and later on Gentry streets… later moving to Riverside ( 3rd ward). The Lewis', too, moved to Riverside. The Lewis family ran and owned The Park, The Jensen, The De Luxe and Pastime Theater (& one other theater that I cant recall)
Uploaded a recent interior picture
It looks like there is some movement to save the facade of the theater, although this was a year ago, and nothing seems to have been done yet. http://swamplot.com/the-deluxe-theaters-next-act-fifth-ward-zydeco-library/2010-04-29/
Here is a 1983 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/cakqpe
Here is a picture of it I took in December 2008:
View link
For more up-to-date information, visit the DeLuxe Theater’s Myspace page: www.myspace.com/deluxetheater
The De Luxe Theater is designed in the Streamline Moderne style, a popular American architectural style from 1920-1949. Characteristics of the style include its concrete surface, rounded corners, semicircular byas, metal windows and other details suggesting motion. These two American architecutral styles broke from teh revival styles popular around teh trun of the century and captured the spirit of the modern age and the future.
The DeLuxe Theater is now a 15,000sqft. shell representing a historical landmark and an arts cornerstone in the historic 5th Ward community of Houston.
Plans are underway to restore and transform the DeLuxe Theater into a center for culture and the arts to serve the 5th Ward community. The 5th Ward, as well as surrounding neighborhoods can re-connect with the community’s proud history and culture through a wide range of arts, civic and private events and celebrations at the Center.
Developing the historic DeLuxe Theater into a center for culture and the arts could allow for use by professional artists and arts organizations, as well as neighborhood-based groups. Although the center would have a performing arts focus, the Center could also feature a high profile gallery space for the exhibition of the works of professional artists with an emphasis on artists who live in the Fifth Ward. As well as serving as a fully functional branch of the Houston Public Library.
The building has been purchased by the City of Houston and restoration is being planned in a collaborative effort between The City of Houston, The Houston Public Library, The University of Houston, and the Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Center. Plans to begin construction are slated for Fall 2008, with a hopeful opening sometime in 2009.
More information to come as I have it.
brucesw;The address of the Globe Theatre is given as 6901 Lyons Street (650 seats)
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, did a show at the Deluxe in 1971 called “The Deluxe Show.” It was an exhibit of works by Black Houston artists. The catalog of the show is still around and probably has pictures of the theatre. I have the poster, but it’s a bit large for the scanner. The theatre exterior was pretty run down at that time. The theatre name was spelled De LUXE.
The De Luxe was at 3303 Lyons, the Roxy at 2737 – both very close to and on either side US 59/Eastex Fwy. The Venus was at 6515 Lyons – I have not been able to find an address for the Globe.
There were at one time about four other theatres in this area, the Lyons, Roxy, Globe and Venus. It has been a couple of years since I was last in Houston, but I recall seeing two building on Lyons Blvd, which resembled theatres. One was an ornate vacant building that might have been the Roxy based on its proximity to the Eastex Expressway. Further east of the Eastex was a church that I believe was the former Lyons Theatre. These are the only two theaters like structures that I can remember from this area.
Listed as a Negro theatre in Film Daily Yearbook’s; 1941 – 1955. The seating capacity of the De Luxe Theater is given as 740.