1524--1534 South St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. County/parish: Philadelphia.
Added to the National Register of Historic Places February 08, 1980. NRIS 80003619.
1 contributing building.
The Royal Theater was a center of African American culture in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Built in 1919, by the 1930s the theater had earned the reputation as "America's Finest Colored Photoplayhouse". The theater closed in 1970, after attendance dwindled and the threat of the Crosstown Expressway had decimated the neighborhood. (The proposed highway was never built.)
In 2000, Kenny Gamble's Universal Companies purchased the Royal, 1522 and 1536 South, buildings on either side of the theater, as well as 1523, 1537 and 1539 Kater St. (the narrow street just south of South) and 1521–1523 South St. (across the street), from the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia for $250,000.
(read more...)National Park Service documentation: https://catalog.archives.gov/id/71997178