Castor Theatre

Grew up loving the place. Lived three blocks from it. Best memory was when ET played there for the better part of an entire year. Classic.

The Castor Theatre opened in 1936 and was designed in the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco Style by Thalheimer & Weitz, (Clarence Stern Thalheimer, AIA (1898-1984) & David Daniel Weitz, BS, AIA (1895-1976)), an architectural and engineering firm in Philadelphia. Thalheimer & Weitz also designed the Devon Theatre (c.1946) in Mayfair and Suburban Station (c.1930) in Center City. The theater was constructed by the Golder Construction Co. and included two adjoining retail stores, one on each side. The theater closed in 1989. Today, the marquee remains and reads: CASTOR 99c & UP GROCERY STORE. The adjoining stores (6629 & 6633 Castor Ave.) are now part of the grocery store.

TheaterBluff1: Let’s try this one more time. The Castor Theatre and the Tyson Theater still coexist on Castor Avenue. They are four blocks apart. The Castor Theatre is at 6627-33 Castor Avenue @ Fanshawe Street (between Fanshawe & Unruh Streets). The Castor Theatre opened in 1936 and closed in 1989. After closing, it became a furniture showroom. It is now a 99c and up grocery store.(And no, they never sold furs there)! The Tyson Theater, four blocks north of the Castor, is at 7043 Castor Avenue @ Brighton Street (between Tyson & Princeton Avenues). The Tyson Theater opened in 1940 and closed in August, 1987. In that same year, Mirror firs bought the theater and retained its looks. They even had a mannequin in the box office. Later, a furniture store replaced Mirror. At the end of 2013, the space remains empty. Got it? Finally!

The theater is not ghetto but is in a proud working class community. The neighborhood does have a name-Oxford Circle/Castor Gardens-the same name it always had. The alley around back is actually a common driveway. That graffiti is the work of those suburban kids, probably your neighbors! And you don’t have to feel uneasy. That old beat-up looking van belongs to an undercover police officer who lives in one of those tiny row houses. So you see, not everything you see is as it appears!

All of the old movie palaces had grand staircases that led to second-floor lounges. Many were furnished and carpeted. Smoking was confined to these areas and the presentation could often be viewed from this vantage point. If you have never experienced one of these venues, you definitely need to get out more!

The Castor Theatre wa the only theatre that I have ever been to in which you had to climb a full flight of steps to get to the ladies or mens bathrooms. They were at the same level as the projection room.

Based on how it was when I saw it last, that theater is located in a type of blindspot part of the city at this point in time. Not quite ghetto to the one extreme, no longer the proud working class community it once was to the other. And I’m not even sure the community even has a name at this point. During the daytime it’s not too bad around there, but I’m not sure how it is at night. Wouldn’t necessarily want to go find out. Back in 2006 when I took photos of it I went around into the back alley to take pictures of it from that side, and there I felt a bit uneasy. There was graffiti and an old beat-up looking van parked nearby, looking as if used regularly for illegal drug deals, the backs of tiny rowhouses to the other side of the alley. I quickly took my photos and then parted while it was still light out. Haven’t been back since. But if it’s now a 99 cent store, that sounds about right.

I was actually going by the news story on Channel 29, as I mentioned.

There is a 1980 photo on this page. It would have to be 1980 as that’s the only year my Phils have ever been champions in their 125 year history:
http://www.moviehouseproductions.com/

Shown on Fox TV Channel 29 news last night as a 99 cent store, as part of story on closure of AMC Orleans:
View link

That, I suppose, is why few people remember it, particularly when the Tyson, which was great, was so near to it, not to mention the Crest up on Rising Sun Avenue, which was not all that far. So all told, therefore, if the Castor Theatre building is still standing it’s of historic interest only, similar to how it is with Holmesburg’s first movie theater — a silent movie house — which today is in use as Dance Kidz near Frankford & Rhawn.

Incidentally, given how Cinema Treasures does not seem to have a special page for it, does anybody have any familiarity at all with the United Artists Grant Plaza Cinema 9 not all that far north of the Castor Theatre at Grant & Bustleton? Although it’s a multiplex, it appears to be impeccably being taken care of, is still in full operation as a theater — and a first run theater at that — yet is the first theater I’d ever seen in my entire lifetime without a marquee! It’s as if to say if you still want a half-decent theater right here in Northeast Philadelphia to go to, here it is. But shhhhhhh, don’t tell anybody about it…

As you can imagine, I did get some photos of the Tyson Theatre building. Over a month ago in fact. And if I can get confirmation that the Castor Theatre building is still there, farther down at Castor and Fanshawe, I’ll be more than happy to go get some photos of that, too.

As for my special attention to theater exteriors, with regard to theaters of the future I regard this aspect to be of extreme importance. My feeling is that the more attention paid to the design of the theater’s exterior, the less the theater operator will have to pay for advertising and promotion. The beauty of the theater’s exterior will be its own advertising. Also, the theater’s exterior must be respectful of and complementary to all that’s around it rather than having an invasive appearance. All of Philadelphia’s greater architecture follows this rule, whereby its lesser architecture disregards it. And oh does the latter look God awful! I call it landscape (or cityscape) iconoclasm. And at present we see examples of this visual assault all throughout Northeast Philadelphia, a trend which this part of the city clearly needs to get beyond, for consciously or subconsciously everyone gets hurt by it. And contrast Northeast Philadelphia at present to, say, Santa Barbara, California, where every new structure must meet full community approval first. That practice should be made standard all throughout the U.S. just as it is now throughout most if not all of modern Europe. And if you read the Reverend S.F. Hotchkins account of how Northeast Philadelphia was in 1893 in a book he wrote called The Bristol Pike, you’ll see how at one time that practice had been standard all throughout this part of the city. It’s not to say all architecture must be fully uniform, that is, of one particular architectural style, for this practice to work, only that contrasting architectural styles should not be in conflict with one another. In Hamburg, Germany — which had been severely bombed in World War II — they rebuilt it in such a way so that buildings that survived from before were blended with all new ultra-modern structures that rose up after the war, and did they ever do a beautiful job of it! And Northeast Philadelphia has it in it to be as good as Hamburg, Germany….er, doesn’t it?

And both became fur and clothing stores after they were no longer theaters and then furniture stores after that? I’m not arguing this couldn’t have been the case, mind you, only that it’s quite a coincidence! (BTW, when in small caps “theatres” should be spelled “theaters,” since this is the U.S.A., and that’s been the correct spelling here, the other incorrect, ever since the time of the American Revolution. The spelling you used is only correct when it’s part of the theater’s name, while we should be respectful of the fact that not all theaters use that spelling in their names.)

Now I’m quite curious what the latest story is with the Castor Theatre building since we’ve established it’s separate and six blocks or so below the Tyson. Do you remember the Castor, Hdtv267? If so, I’m sure we’d all love to hear what memories you have of it. And any chance you or anybody might know who its architect was?