United Palace Theater

The United Palace (originally Loew's 175th Street Theatre) is a theater at 4140 Broadway in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The theater, occupying a full city block bounded by Broadway, Wadsworth Avenue, and West 175th and 176th Streets, functions both as a spiritual center and as a nonprofit cultural and performing arts center. Architect Thomas W. Lamb designed the theater as a movie palace, which opened in 1930 as one of five Loew's Wonder Theatres in the New York City area. The theater's lavishly eclectic interior decor was supervised by Harold Rambusch, who also designed the interior of the Roxy Theatre and the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.Staff (ndg) "United Palace: Reawaken Wonder" (tour brochure) United Palace. Accessed: August 18, 2018.

The theater was the first in Washington Heights built specifically to show films,Caratzas, Michael (December 13, 2016
"United Palace Designation Report"
New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission although it also presented live vaudeville., p. 286 The theater operated continuously until it was closed by Loew's in 1969. That same year it was purchased by the United Christian Evangelistic Association, headed by the television evangelist Rev. Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known as Reverend Ike. The theater became the headquarters of his United Church Science of Living Institute and was renamed the United Palace."United Church: 'The Palace Cathedral'"
in ''New York City Organ Project'' New York City Chapter of the American Guild of Organists

The building was designated a New York City landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2016. As of 2018, the church is called the United Palace of Spiritual Arts, and offers performing arts events through the United Palace of Cultural Arts. The facility is available for rental to outside event producers and promoters.

Architecture

The architectural style of the terra-cotta-faced theater has been described as "Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco" by David W. Dunlap of the ''New York Times'', who wrote later that Lamb borrowed from "the Alhambra in Spain, the Kailasa rock-cut shrine in India, and the Wat Phra Keo temple in Thailand, adding Buddhas, bodhisattvas, elephants, and honeycomb stonework in an Islamic pattern known as ''muqarnas.''" The ''AIA Guide to New York City'' calls it "Cambodian neo-Classical" and invites a comparison to Lamb's Loew's Pitkin Theatre in Brownsville, Brooklyn, while ''New York Times'' reporter Nathaniel Adams called it simply a "kitchen-sink masterpiece." Lamb himself wrote that "Exotic ornaments, colors and scenes are particularly effective in creating an atmosphere in which the mind is free to frolic and becomes receptive to entertainment."

The interior of the building features a "palatial" staircase. and reflects the western obsession with exotic lands and cultures that was fashionable in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The interior is decorated with filigreed walls and ceilings, illuminated with indirect, recessed lighting from within and behind the walls. The rich decor is enhanced by reproductions of authentic Louis XV and XVI furnishings.

The theater still looks very much as it did when it first opened; the only major change that Rev. Ike made was adding in the 1970s a cupola or prayer tower on the building's northeast corner, at Wadsworth Avenue and West 176th Street, topped by a "Miracle Star of Faith," visible from the George Washington Bridge and New Jersey.

History

Theater

Loew's 175th Street Theatre was built as one of the Loew's Wonder Theatres, the company's five extravagant and spacious flagships throughout the New York City area. The other four theaters are Loew's Jersey in Jersey City

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