Address | 291 Keswick Avenue Glenside, Pennsylvania United States |
---|---|
Coordinates | 40°6′23″N75°8′51″W / 40.10639°N 75.14750°W |
Owner | AEG Live |
Type | Theatre |
Genre(s) | music, concerts |
Capacity | 1300 |
Construction | |
Opened | December 24, 1928as a vaudeville/movie house 1981Re-opened March 1988Re-opened |
Renovated | 1955 as a cinemascope film house March 1988 |
Closed | 1980 December 1985 |
Architect | Horace Trumbauer |
Website | |
www | |
Built | 1928 |
Architect | Horace Trumbauer |
Architectural style | Tudor Revival |
NRHP reference No. | 83002263 [1] |
Added to NRHP | June 30, 1983 |
The Keswick Theatre is a privately owned theater in the Keswick Village section of Glenside, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. Horace Trumbauer designed the exterior in the Tudor Revival Style, which has remained essentially unaltered. When opened it had 1,366 seats. [2]
The first performance was on Christmas Day in 1928 in a private event held for the Kiwanis Club. The Keswick Theatre opened to the public on December 27 with vaudeville and the film Glorious Betsy . Shot as a silent film with some speaking sequences, the Keswick showed a silent version as the sound equipment was not yet ready. In 1955 the theatre was renovated to show CinemaScope films. [2]
The theatre operated until 1980. After closing it was threatened with demolition until a community group formed to re-open it as a live performance venue. During this period the Keswick presented performances by Fred Waring and the Young Pennsylvanians and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. The venue also hosted performances by Theodore Bikel, Lionel Hampton, Carlos Montoya and Roberta Peters. The theater closed again in 1985 and reopened in 1988 under private ownership. The new owners established a restoration fund for repairs, restoration, and equipment upgrades. [3] The theatre has been described as "acoustically luscious" [2] and was fully restored by 1994.
It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. [4] It has been owned by AEG Live since 2008. [5]
Originally the Keswick had an Aeolian-Votey pipe organ (Opus 1689) which was installed with a wide array of percussion traps for the accompaniment of silent films. [6] The fate of the original organ is unknown. [7] In 1987 the Möller organ (Opus 5230) from the Sedgwick Theater was installed in the Keswick. When the Sedgwick closed as a cinema in 1966 the organ was removed and placed in storage. [8]
Glenside is a census-designated place (CDP) located in Cheltenham Township and Abington Township in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It borders Northwest Philadelphia. The population was 7,737 at the 2020 census on a land area of 1.3 square miles. Glenside is most notable for its entertainment, such as the Keswick Theatre, restaurants, recreational facilities and parks. The Glenside station is one of the busiest in the SEPTA system. Glenside is located approximately six miles from Center City Philadelphia.
A theatre organ is a type of pipe organ developed to accompany silent films, from the 1900s to the 1920s.
Ernest Martin Skinner was an American pipe organ builder. His electro-pneumatic switching systems advanced the technology of organ building in the first part of the 20th century.
The Fox Theatre is a performing arts center located at 2211 Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit, Michigan, near the Grand Circus Park Historic District. Opened in 1928 as a flagship movie palace in the Fox Theatres chain, it was at over 5,000 seats the largest theater in the city. Designed by theater architect C. Howard Crane, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.
Mathias Peter Møller, commonly known as M.P. Möller or Moeller, was a prolific pipe-organ builder and businessman. A native of the Danish island of Bornholm, he emigrated to the United States in 1872 and founded the M.P. Moller Pipe Organ Company in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, in 1875. The city of Hagerstown, Maryland, took notice of Möller's early successes and induced him to move his business there in 1881 to help make it a viable business center in Western Maryland. The company remained in business in Hagerstown. until 1992, with hundreds of employees at its peak and a lifetime production of over 12,000 instruments.
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The Philadelphia Convention Hall and Civic Center, commonly known simply as the Philadelphia Civic Center, was a convention center complex located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It developed out of a series of buildings dedicated to expanding trade which began with the National Export Exhibition in 1899. The two most significant buildings in the complex were the original main exhibition hall built in 1899, which later housed the Philadelphia Commercial Museum, and the Municipal Auditorium, later called the Convention Hall, which was built in 1931 to the designers of architect Philip H. Johnson. The site was host to national political conventions in 1900, 1936, 1940 and 1948.
William Harold Lee was an American 20th century movie theater designer and later the chief architect for Eastern College. He was a protégé of acclaimed Philadelphia architect Frank Furness.
The Lafayette Theatre is a nationally acclaimed movie palace located in downtown Suffern, New York, built in 1923. Its primary function is first-run movies, but it also houses special events like its popular weekly Big Screen Classics film shows. It is also notable for housing a Wurlitzer theatre organ, which is played before Big Screen Classics shows.
Austin Organs, Inc., is a manufacturer of pipe organs based in Hartford, Connecticut. The company is one of the oldest continuously-operating organ manufacturers in the United States. The first instruments were built in 1893 with the Austin Patent Airchest, and many remain in fine playing condition to this day.
The Pabst Theater is an indoor performance and concert venue and landmark of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States. Colloquially known as "the Pabst", the theater hosts about 100 events per year. Built in 1895, it is the fourth-oldest continuously operating theater in the United States, and has presented such notables as pianist Sergei Rachmaninoff, actor Laurence Olivier, and ballerina Anna Pavlova, as well as various current big-name musical acts.
The Sedgwick Theater is a historic American theater in the Mt. Airy neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Colonial Theatre is located in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, at 227 Bridge Street. Built in 1903, the "Colonial Opera House" became a preeminent venue for movies, traveling shows and live entertainment throughout the 20th century. The three-screen venue consists of the original 658-seat ‘vaudeville house’ and two newer additional theatres in the adjacent National Bank of Phoenixville building (c.1925).
Hershey Theatre is a 1,904-seat theater in downtown Hershey, Pennsylvania. Touring Broadway musicals, concerts, community performances, and dance groups perform at the theater.
The Redford Theatre is an atmospheric theatre in the Old Redford neighborhood of Detroit. The theatre opened in January 1928, advertised as "Detroit's most unique suburban theatre," due to its grand design, featuring Japanese and Chinese motifs.
The Robert Morton Organ Company was an American producer of theater pipe organs and church organs, located in Van Nuys, California. Robert Morton was the number two volume producer of theatre organs, building approximately half as many organs as the industry leader Wurlitzer. The name Robert Morton was derived not from any person in the company, but rather from the name of company president Harold J. Werner's son, Robert Morton Werner.
The Capitol Theatre is a theatre operating in Rome, New York. It opened December 10, 1928 as part of the Kallet chain of movie houses, presenting first run films until it closed in 1974. After extensive renovation, the theatre re-opened in 1985 as the non-profit Capitol Civic Center, offering classic films, live theatrical performances, and concerts.
The Civic Theatre of Allentown, also known as the Nineteenth Street Theatre, is the oldest cinema in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The theater opened on September 17, 1928. It hosts live theater, educational programs, and screens art house films. In July 1957, the property was purchased by Allentown's Civic Little Theatre. Since then, stage productions have been performed at the theater. In 1994 the company officially changed its name to the Civic Theatre of Allentown.
Across the Sea of Suns is a Jefferson Starship live album. The album was produced by using recordings from four different live venues: The Bottom Line in New York City; The IMAC at Huntington, New York; New Park Entertainment in Philadelphia; and The Keswick Theatre in Glenside, Pennsylvania. The album had further studio production at American Recording in Calabasas, California. Most of the tracks used for the final album were from The Bottom Line, and none of the tracks recorded in Philadelphia were used. The album was released as a double CD. Grace Slick provided liner notes, writing her own thoughts about sixteen of the songs included.
Edwin Scott Votey was an American businessman, inventor, industrial designer, and manufacturer of pianos and organs. He worked in the organ field all his adult life and had over twenty patents. He invented or co-invented several inventions for World War I. One was a pilotless airplane that was going to be used to drop bombs on the enemy but was never used.