Greenway Theatre
5130 Greenway Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19023
5130 Greenway Avenue,
Philadelphia,
PA
19023
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I went there every Saturday as a child. I distinctly remember the chapters. Next door was a little shed where candy was sold.
John C. Conner opened the Greenway in 1916. He sold it in 1919 to M. Seltzer who sold it to Eli Resnick in 1921. Stanley Circuit took on the Greenway Theatre in 1930 but Resnick operated the theatre until his death in 1952. It appears that Paul and Samuel Resnick took on the operation and it may have exited after the October 19, 1952 showing of “The Iron Man” and “Double Crossbones.” However, they may have continued operations without advertising. Either way, it became a long-running church that was still operating in the 21st Century.
I believe this theatre was most likely in the building that is now the Grace Tabernacle Christian Church, currently using the address 5122 Greenway Avenue. It is probably also the unnamed theater mentioned in the September 16, 1916, issue of The Moving Picture World:
The current building looks deeper than 140 feet, though, so the theater might have been rebuilt sometime after 1916, but it’s more likely that it was just expanded.