Lovejoy Theatre / Pool

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1979ish

April 2010

1979ish

April 2004

August 2017
Photo credit: Mike Puma ViewsOfBuffalo, flickr.rachael, Puma, Karl Josker, Puma

Location

1169 East Lovejoy Street, Buffalo, NY 14206

Owner

  • City of Buffalo Parks and Recreation.

Physical Description

  • Streamline Moderne style, single screen 800 seat theatre

Current Condition

  • Converted into a public pool and in use. Some recent damage to the corner of the east side of the facade is now noticeable.

History

  • 1940 - Lovejoy Theatre opens. Possibly designed by William Spann.
  • Per a commenter on Cinema Treasure, there were actually three Lovejoy Theaters:
    • The first theater, opened 1909 and closed in the teens, was a storefront known as the Lovejoy Palace.
    • The second Lovejoy was opened in 1919 by Sam Rappaport. This Lovejoy closed in the 1940s.
    • The Rappaport family then opened the New Lovejoy at this location
  • 1975 - New owners (EARL LYNGE per County Property Viewer) took over the theatre from the Rappaports.
  • 1979 - The theatre closes and is converted by the City into the Lovejoy Pool.
    • Per Linda Hastreiter, former Lovejoy councilman Norm Bakos, who had a history of housing court violations on his properties, briefly owned the building but could not get insurance on it before it was sold to the City. He isn't listed on the County website, but their ownership list is also incomplete, showing only the names of ownership changes in '75 and '80.

Recent Events and Actions Taken

  • 2017 - Per Linda Hastreiter, President of the Iron Island Museum, $500,000 was awarded to a contractor for repairs or improvements that went poorly, followed by a second $500,000 payment to the same contractor to make interior/exterior repairs. The work is not complete and apparently went poorly enough to threaten the building itself.

Other Pertinent Facts

  • Per a commenter on Cinema Treasures, this was the last new single screen theater built in the city of Buffalo.

Links


Newest Pages

■ 71 North Street ■ 100 Eighteenth Street ■ St. Rose of Lima School ■ 1291 Main Street ■ 22 Chateau Terrace ■ 807 Clinton Street ■ 250 Richmond Avenue ■ Liberty Tailors ■ 1966 Niagara Street ■ 1942 Niagara Street ■ 1930 Niagara Street ■ 2018 Main Street, Niagara Falls NY 14305 ■ 1940 Niagara Street ■ 1932 Niagara Street ■ 1035 Jefferson Avenue ■ 701 Third Street, Niagara Falls ■ The Turtle - Native American Center for the Arts ■ Nabisco Elevator, Niagara Falls ■ 945 Washington Street ■ 941 Washington Street ■ 931 Washington Street ■ 929 Washington Street ■ 927 Washington Street ■ Prophet Isaiah's Second Coming House ■ 1681 Main Street ■ 1215 Niagara Street ■ 882 West Avenue ■ 878 West Avenue ■ 29 Minton Street ■ Paramount Lodge

Added 2014-12-11 • Last changed 2017-08-10

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