Belmont Theatre
25 N. 52nd Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
25 N. 52nd Street,
Philadelphia,
PA
19139
1 person favorited this theater
This 1,000-seat movie house originally opened in 1914, located at 52nd Street and Filbert Street. It closed in 1970. Today, there is a laundromat at the address.
Contributed by
Bryan
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Recent comments (view all 6 comments)
A little information about this building. I grew up around the corner from this theater, and I my memories as a child was of the building being closed, and in poor shape. In fact the building was next to a restaurnat called Horn & Hardart. Sometime between 1970, and 1975 both buildings were raised. The spot that housed the Horn & Hardart became a fast food chain, and the Belmont location became just an empty parking lot.
Here is an expanded version of one of the 2005 thumbnails from the PAB site. The photo is from the Irvin Glazer collection:
http://tinyurl.com/2as29g
Here is another photo from the same source:
http://tinyurl.com/lh3tmy
I grew up not far from here and recall the theater being used as some sort of ‘70s disco/club, and it was definitely next to H&H. When the Market-Frankford El was being renovated in '06, the bus stop was temporarily relocated directly in front of where the Belmont stood. There are new(?) stores on that spot now.
The Belmont Theatre building was demolished. Today, other retail buildings have replaced the theater building.
An item in the September 4, 1915, issue of The Moving Picture World noted the retirement from the theater business of pioneer Philadelphia exhibitor Samuel Wheeler, and said that he had built the Belmont Theatre:
The January 22, 1916, issue of MPW said that the Felt Brothers had taken over both of Wheeler’s 52nd Street houses: