A rendering by Anthony F. Dumas shows the Mount Morris Theatre as it stood circa 1934. At this point in time, it appears that the theater on East 116th Street converted into a burlesque venue which was not so uncommon for this type of establishment during the 1930s. The lower photo shows the same corner of Fifth Avenue today and one can see that the church housed within has pretty much maintained the integrity of the building over the decades.
Archival sketch courtesy of the Museum of the City of New York
I love seeing the original sketch, Thank You for the post.
ReplyDeleteThat would make an amazing venue!!! Don't we already have enough churches? :)
ReplyDeleteI am constantly bemused by the anti-church sentiment on this blog. Churches are very much part of the fabric of Harlem; most are full on any given Sunday and one need only count the tourist buses to see that they draw tourists and their $ to all corners of Harlem.
DeleteThe rhetoric of the "over-churching" of Harlem has a long history, starting with, if memory recalls, James Weldon Johnson, but W.E.B. DuBois and Hubert Harrison held much the same opinion at times.
ReplyDeleteThe long and venerable traditions uptown of socialism and Black Nationalism and Black Muslims are also points of departure for, shall we say, vigorous critiques of Christianity.
By the way, if someone were to say there were too many synagogues in a particular neighborhood, we'd say that was anti-semitism, right? And how long before people talking about "too many mosques"in Harlem?