Avenue Theater
1108 5th Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
1108 5th Avenue,
Pittsburgh,
PA
15219
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As far as the theater near Magee (not Mages), that must have been the later Avenue. There is a 1924 Sanborn which should show it, but the volume containing downtown is missing from the Penn State online collection. I can confirm that 1108 is a parking lot, and has been since at least 2008, and likely much longer. That area of town is in very rough shape, and entire blocks of it has been turned into surface parking.
This listing is confused. I’m not sure which theater caught fire in 1903, but the Avenue was destroyed in a fire in June, 1905. That theater was at about 330-340 5th Ave. It was built sometime before 1884, and was a 4 story brick building about three storefronts wide. It was joined at the rear to another opera house (later the Grand), which faced Diamond St (now Forbes Ave).
The 1884 map shows it as ‘Opera House’ with a Lyceum on the second floor. The 1893 map calls it the Harris Theatre, and the 1906 map shows an empty lot noting that the Avenue was destroyed, with the Grand Opera House to the south damaged by the same fire.
The theater at 1108, if there was one, must have opened much later, and the low capacity matches what must have been a marginal little neighborhood house.
The listing needs to be split. I’ll add a Sanborn view of the older, much larger, theater, and that can be moved if needed.
Another item about the 1923 mystery theater planned for Fifth Avenue is this one from the August 11, 1923 Exhibitors Trade Review: “PITTSBURGH, PA. - Rubin & VeShancey, Union Arcade have completed plans for the $75.000 to $100,000 soon to be erected Fifth Avenue, near Mages St., by Owner, The Majestic Theatre Corporation, Jos. C. Marcus, 2014 Fifth Ave.”
Here is an item from the September 21, 1923 issue of The Moving Picture World which might, or might not, be about the Avenue Theatre:
Whether or not this item was in fact about the Pearl/Avenue, the Avenue Theatre that had the fire in 1903 was a different house, and probably not on the same site. A November, 1903 fire at Harry Davis' Avenue Theatre in Pittsburgh is mentioned in the end notes of The Perils of Moviegoing in America: 1896-1950, by Gary D. Rhodes, as well as in Charles Musser’s The Emergence of Cinema: The American Screen to 1907.Other sources reveal that Davis operated his Avenue Theatre at least as early as 1896, and that it burned down in 1905, whereupon Davis and his partner John P. Harris opened the famous Nickelodeon. While Davis' Avenue Theatre was on Fifth Avenue, I’ve been unable to find an address for it, and it’s possible, maybe even likely, that it was not at 1108 Fifth.
This particular Avenue Theatre must be the one that got the name in 1938. According to Boxoffice Magazine’s issue of November 12 that year, the former Pearl Theatre on Fifth Avenue uptown had reopened as the Avenue Theatre after being “…renovated from front to back, wall to wall and ceiling to floor….” The owner of the Avenue was Jacob Richman.
Renewing link.
Postscript to the above: The other Avenue Theatre in McKeesport later was known as the Victor, for which I’ll create a C.T. entry now.
The site by 1983 had become either a surface parking lot or the Light Brothers sportswear store. (Precise addresses were indistinct within the block.)
There was a different Avenue Theatre in McKeesport at one time, at about 520 Fifth Avenue.
There were at least five theaters called the Avenue in the Pittsburgh area, but the 200- (or 225-) seater mentioned here was at 1108 Fifth Avenue in McKeesport, a town just to the east of Pittsburgh.
The theater’s earlier name was the Pearl.
The Avenue Theatre is listed as open in the 1950 edition of Film Daily Yearbook with a seating capacity of 200. The address is given as 1108 5th Avenue, Pittsburg, PA