Casino Theatre

144 2nd Avenue,
New York, NY 10003

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NitrateNerd
NitrateNerd on July 4, 2020 at 5:29 pm

This building is now the iconic ukrainian restaurant Velselka

Texas2step
Texas2step on May 14, 2017 at 4:37 pm

This article gives some history of 144 2nd Avenue. According to the article the Casino theatre operated from about 1914 to 1928. This portion of the article applies to the Casino theatre.

“As the commercialization of 2nd Avenue was underway, the Menschels leased the building at 144. In 1914, Philip and Benjamin Menschel applied to demolish the townhouse and construct a commercial building. The centerpiece of the new three-story building was a 595-seat “moving picture theater” on the first and second floor. The newly constructed Casino Theatre was one of the at least six movie theaters along the lower section of 2nd Avenue.

The theater didn’t last very long. In 1928, the brothers began a complete overhaul of the building and in place of the theater came shops, offices, classrooms and a billiards parlor. After the conversion, some of the building’s earliest tenants were a stationery shop, the Greater New York Taxpayers Association, a Chinese art store, a school for Jewish children, and a restaurant with cabaret."