Print Size: 24" x 30" (Frame Size: 24" x 30")
As “movies” and later “talkies” became an established form of entertainment in the early 20th century, theaters adopted a more dignified style of architecture that distanced them from early Nickelodeons and inched them closer to the respectability of legitimate stage. The Garden Theater, built in 1914 on Pittsburgh’s north side, is typical of just such a neighborhood showcase. If not quite a big city movie palace, its ornate quasi Beaux-Arts façade of beige and light green terra cotta nonetheless brought the show right out to the street. Retail storefronts flank the main entrance with its decorative, almost octagonal ticket booth (a 1924 addition). Windows on the second floor opened to an original ice cream parlor that later served for decades as a dance studio. The 180-foot-long building provided rapt audiences with 990 seats: a ¼-acre Garden of dreams. With only minor adjustments over the years (including the removal of the ticket booth for exhibition in Pittsburgh’s Old Post Office Museum), The Garden Theater has remained the same as built. The biggest change came in 1972 when, faced with closure, it took to showing X-rated films. In March 2007, the city closed the Garden, Pittsburgh’s last porn theater; live theater offered new life.
