History and architecture
The Regent Theater is one of New York City's most significant surviving early motion picture theater buildings. Constructed in 1912-13, during the period that the motion picture business made the transition from showing short silent movies in nickelodeons to offering "photo plays" in larger, specially built theaters with numerous amenities for their partings, the Regent was designed by the noted and prolific theater specialist Thomas W. Lamb. It is one of only a few theaters of Lamb's early career remaining in New York City. An elegant architectural design, the Regent was built to elevate the presentation of movies and was one of the first luxurious movie theaters in New York City. The theater was controlled by the real estate interests of the Little family, prominent printers, for nearly forty years.
Located in Harlem at the corner of two thoroughfares which were popular for entertainment venues, the Regent was operated as a movie and vaudeville house for some fifty years -- as an innovative setting for movie presentations (for a short time under management of Samuel L. Rothapfel (later "Roxy" Rothafel)), as the B.S. Moss Regent Theater from 1915 to 1928, and finally as the RKO Regent Theater. Its distinctive, eclectic design, executed in polychrome terra cotta on the front portion of the building, incorporates Italian and northern European Renaissance and Mannerist motifs, particularly the diaper-patterned wall surfaces, ground story arcade, upper loggias, and prominent central stepped frontispiece.
The terra cotta, manufactured by the South Amboy Terra Cotta Company, is notable in it detailing and subtle shades. For third years the Regent Theater building, still a striking and very visible presence, has served as the home of the First Corinthian Baptist Church, an African-American congregation formed in Harlem in 1939.
Sources and further reading
This history comes from the Landmarks app’s historical catalog. Names and building uses may reflect the period described.