Elmore Theatre

For more than 125 years, the address of 2312-2314 has been home to a Hill District venue serving the local community. The original venue was the Belmont Palace Rolling Rink that served African-American skaters. It then turned into the Belmont Hall in 1908. Belmont Hall hosted political events, was a polling place, and hosted community dances. In 1911, the venue became a full-time Nickelodeon with vaudeville as the Center Hall Theatre. In 1915, John Elmore took on the venue renaming it as the Elmore Theatre and concentrates almost exclusively on motion pictures.

During a short period, migration of the Jewish and German audiences that the Elmore Theatre was trying to reach migrated out of the neighborhood which went from largely to almost exclusively an African-American neighborhood. Elmore switched the theatre to cater for an African-American audience. A fire caused little damage, it would not be hard to imagine that the building’s fire egress wasn’t called into question. Soon thereafter, Elmore contracted with Philadelphia architect Ulysses J.L. Peoples for a New Elmore Theatre costing an eye-raising $150,000 including a $10,000 pipe organ. Joe’s Place next door served as a de facto concession stand with its soda fountain and candy.

The New Elmore Theatre would launch September 3, 1923 to a full house. “The Rapids” with Harry Morey was the opening title. The two-story brick facility had a terra-cotta front and was still standing 100 years after its launch as a church. The Depression took its toll on the area’s African-American movie theatres which were unable to upgrade to sound systems. The Elmore was one such example when it closed on April 30, 1930. Neighboring Joe’s Place packed up moving next door to the surviving Roosevelt Theatre.

The former Elmore Theatre soon found a buyer in Herron Hill Amusement Company which was capitalizing on a miniature golf craze that began in the late-1920’s across America. Herron Hill created Courier Links, said to be one of the finest indoor golf courses in Western Pennsylvania to the plans of Golf Construction Corporation. The name of the golfing attraction was changed to Elmore Gardens to no avail. The craze did not last and the financial woes did so in 1933 the venue was retrofitted for the New Elmore Theatre. The New Elmore Theatre launched on September 2, 1933 on a policy of double features with a stage show. Marie Dressler in “Tug Boat Annie” and Jean Harlow in “Hold Your Man” opened the venue.

The big money was in African-American nightclubs with live dancing and jazz music. So after just three months, the New Elmore Theatre was out and the Savoy Ballroom was in. It started with a Christmas Eve ball. That lasted until the Savoy moved to new digs at the failed Pytherian Temple in 1937. In 1938, the former Elmore Theatre was in a forced sale to settle the Elmore estate. It would first become the Church of God and Christ followed by Beck’s Temple.

At the end of the 1940’s, the address would once again become a roller rink – the Godfrey Roller Rink. But it would return to its house of worship days lasting more than 50 years into the 2020’s as the Olivet Baptist Church.

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