Loew's Canal Theatre
31 Canal Street,
New York,
NY
10002
31 Canal Street,
New York,
NY
10002
23 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 148 comments
Two new old Tax Photo pictures of the Canal, added to the Gallery.
The future of Loew’s Canal is briefly discussed by owner Thomas Sung in New York Magazine’s issue of December 10-23, 2018. A two-part clipping has been uploaded, starting here
Matt, you are welcome. Work continues every week on restoring the organ. However, a larger on is being rebuilt … with four keyboards.
Mark – That’s amazing that the organ console was sealed under cement for so many years. Thanks!
Matt … you book is a “must buy.” The Canal Theatre opened with a Wurlitzer organ. My theatre organ group, myself included, is restoring it. This is a link sbout the organ. Some of information, particularly about the second theatre were the organ was housed is outdated. http://theatreorgans.com/freestate/where_did_this_organ_come_from.htm.
I found this on the Landmarks commission website.
http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/DS/DocumentSearch/DocumentImageView?doc_id=2012032000346001
I’m sure we can say goodbye to this theatre. The land is very valuable. Another damn apartment will replace it.
The Canal is one of the 24 theaters in my new book, “After the Final Curtain: The Fall of the American Movie Theater,” which is available on Amazon or your local bookstore
Yes the place is crumbling away, here is some info from the NYC Department Of Buildings Site:
1) FIRE STARTED TO HEAT PIPES CAUSED PARTIAL COLLAPSE OF INT WA LLS, NO APPROVED PLANS ON SITE. STOP ALL WORK, ENTIRE SITE 2)TIE BACK ON METAL LATH & PLASTER WALL ROTTED CAUSING WALL TO BECOME UNSTABLE W/ THE POTENTIAL OF COLLAPSE.
Unless the owner does something soon, the inside will rot and fall away to nothing, like what happened to the Loew’s Pitkin.
Walked by yesterday and saw a green box with an X inside it spray painted on the Canal Street sign. As I understand it, this is done by the Fire Dept. after an inspection to indicate a hazardous vacant building. The appearance of the box indicates the level of hazard. Plain box = entry permitted. Box with one diagonal line = proceed with extreme caution and make no heroics to save structure. Box w/ X = do not enter due to unsafe conditions which may have been caused by previous fire on building partial collapse. There are some numbers next to the box to identify the fire company that inspected. Didn’t see any markings like RO for roof out or FO for floor out. Seems like the owner is just letting the building rot.
Auditorium #10 in the Sony/Loews Theatres Lincoln Square complex on New York’s Upper West Side is named in honor of this former Loew’s Motion Picture Palace.
Matt, Your photography of this palace is absoloutly amazing. I can’t wait to see your book on the Kings when it comes out. I used to go into the lobby when it was an electronics store, but they had so much stuff it was kind of hard to make a lot of the terra cotta details out, never got as far as the auditorium though.
It’s the correct address. It’s just the address of the auditorium.
Workers are going in and out of the building this week. The two permits on the door say “interior clean up,” though they bear the address of another location: http://i.imgur.com/x8RzBKi.jpg
Great photos! It seems to be in a little worse shape than Loews 46th St, but even so, looks repairable. A lot of the plaster seems to have been lost on the right side, as well as part of the Proscenium due to water I assume. But it’s remarkably clean….the floors of the balcony and inner lobby appear to have been swept clean! It looks restorable.
I recently posted about the Loew’s Canal at After the Final Curtain
new foto tour of the interior:
http://gothamist.com/2014/06/27/photos_breaking_in_to_the_old_loews.php#photo-1
I’ve been looking for something else, but find other things by accident instead. This website has a few nice images of the theatre with some historical information. I’m just passing through to share.
http://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.com/search/label/chinatown
Mr. Sung recently unveiled his new condo development in a former public school building nearby that he bought 30 years ago. Units start at $500K and he’s hired a real estate broker to market it to Orthodox Jewish families.
If it took 30 years for him to finish this project, who knows how long the theater will take! Theater will probably crumble first.
Two recent articles on the condos (LoDown) and how Mr. Sung’s acquired the school building (WSJ):
http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2012/03/a-conversation-with-madison-jackson-brokerdeveloper-michael-bolla.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203889904577199531679271756.html
Who has some clear shots of the interior as of this spring?
Or, here’s an activated version of the link.
It’s simple. Just copy and past the link into the browser window. Highlight the whole link, Ctrl C, Click in the browser window Ctrl V, enter. There you go. You’re welcome
Thanks for posting…fingers crossed.
Thank you for sharing this article. Let’s hope that performing arts center plans gain momentum, and no remaining interior detail is sacrificed, but rather restored and revitalized.
Article in the LoDown yesterday – prompted by the buzz on Cinema Treasures http://www.thelodownny.com/leslog/2012/01/update-loews-canal-street-theatres-future.html