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Loew's Canal Street Theatre

31 Canal Street
New York, N.Y. 10002





Loew's Canal Street Theatre, located at the far eastern end of Canal Street, between Ludlow and Essex Streets, opened on September 8, 1927. Built as a neighborhood movie house, the 2,300-seat Loew’s Canal was one of the largest theaters on the Lower East Side, which at the time had not only the densest population in the United States, but also the highest concentration of movie theaters. The Loew's Canal was erected within the area's largest enclave of tenements that housed Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, and Lithuanian Jews.

As designed by Thomas W. Lamb, the Loew's Canal had a 22-foot-wide entrance onto Canal Street. Lamb's lavishly decorated façade was almost entirely clad in terra cotta and featured sea monsters, griffons, eagles, garland, foliate and other flamboyant ornament. The narrow lobby—which extended about 60 feet from the street—and the large auditorium were decorated in the Spanish Baroque style.

Loew's Canal Street Theatre shut its doors in the late 1950s, and the building was sold in 1960. The lobby was later converted to retail space, and the auditorium used as a warehouse.

In 2010, hope was raised for the possible renovation of the long shuttered Loew's Canal Theatre when the building's current owners supported an effort by the Committee to Revitalize and Enrich the Arts and Tomorrow's Economy (CREATE) to conduct a feasibility study for the conversion of the Canal Theatre into a multipurpose performance arts center. The group received $150,000 from the city for a feasibility study.

In September 2010, the lobby portion of the theatre was designated a landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.