The Uptown Theater in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, also known as Uptown Theater and Office Building, is an Art Deco building built in 1927. It was designed by the Philadelphia based architectural firm of Magaziner, Eberhard & Harris. The Uptown Theater is located on 2240 N. Broad Street. It became a major venue on the chitlin circuit, from 1951-1978. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.It briefly reopened as a church in the 1980s until water damage occurred and caused it to close in 1991. In 2001, the Uptown Entertainment and Development Corporation bought the building with plans for renovation.BeginningsOpened on February 16, 1929, the 2,040 seat, 50,000 square foot Uptown Theater was built for sound, specifically the new talkies of the time, made by Warner Brothers. Designed by Louis Magaziner, it featured a lavish interior, with four floors of office space above. The interior consisted of stained glass, high ceilings, and terracotta. As the industrial age peaked in America, North Philadelphia became a working man's town. A large influx of European immigrants moved to the northern part of the city, and moved into the newly developed rowhomes.In addition to the new immigrants, North Philadelphia also became the home to many fashionable mansions of the upper and upper-middle class. Executives from nearby factories lived in Victorian brownstones some with turrets and mansard roofs which lined the streets of North Philly. Along Broad Street were the grand mansions of many famed industrialists. Lower North Philadelphia in particular housed a number the nouveau riche; ambitious first or second generation immigrants or that had made their fortunes starting manufacturing firms.
