Nearly a century into its existence and spared demolition in the 1980s through the efforts of the city and a committed residents’ group, a magnificent historic Jersey City theater is on the verge of new life.

When it opened in the autumn of 1929 as motion pictures were continuing to explode into a huge entertainment industry for the masses, the Loew’s Jersey Theatre was the blockbuster. It was one of only five Loew’s Wonder Theatres that the company constructed in the New York City area. The theater cost $2 million to build. The movie palace had a luxurious Italian Renaissance-style auditorium with a 50-foot proscenium. The three-story lobby rotunda held Dresden porcelain vases from the Vanderbilt Manion, a crystal chandelier, and a tiled Carrara marble fountain. On the exterior, the Baroque-Rococo style façade featured a terra cotta façade and a tower with a Seth Thomas mechanical clock topped by a statue of St. George on horseback slaying a dragon. It conjured an experience of Europe’s gilded entertainment palaces.

Nothing was spared for the opening evening’s entertainment on Sept. 28, 1929. It offered performances by Ben Blade and his Rhythm Kings and the Loew’s Symphony Orchestra, plus music from the Robert Morton Wonder Pipe Organ. A display ad in The Jersey Journal promised, “Dancing! Singing! Music and Pep!” The movie was Madame X, which Lionel Barrymore directed, with Ruth Chatterton and Lewis Stone.

A Palace, Then A Multiplex Phase

Brothers Cornelius W. and George L. Rapp, premier architects of hundreds of movie theaters, designed the Loew’s Jersey Theatre as a palace meant to evoke wonder and elevate the experience of the common man and woman. As George Rupp observed, “The wealthy rub elbows with the poor – and are better for this contact.” A month after the theater’s opening, the stock market crashed, setting off the Great Depression.

The Loew’s Jersey Theatre

The ornate detailing of the top of Loew’s Jersey Theatre, centered by a Seth Thomas clock and statue of St. George and the dragon

Through the Depression, World War II, and postwar America, the Loew’s Jersey maintained a presence on Journal Square for movies and entertainment, thriving and then declining. Performers who graced its stages ranged from George Burns and Gracie Allen, Bing Crosby, and Duke Ellington to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. However, the 1960s and 1970s found it facing hard times, and the travesty of a terrible division of its splendid auditorium into the multiplex-style three viewing rooms.

Ultimately, Loew’s Jersey was nearly lost. After it closed in 1986, Hartz Mountain Industries purchased the property the following year, intending to raze the theater to construct an office tower, as the site Cinema Treasures explains. These plans sparked an outcry from community residents determined to save the theater building, who subsequently formed the Friends of the Loew’s. In 1993, the City of Jersey City purchased the building. The Friends of the Loew’s painstakingly brought the theater back from the brink through grants, restoring its auditorium to single use, and presenting movies, live entertainment, and cultural events.

Nearly a century old, this historic theater building will be restored to its original splendor. After many decades and the commitment of the Jersey City government and the Friends of the Loew’s, the Loew’s Jersey Theatre will be restored and renovated, in ways that bring back its resplendence and update it for many years of major entertainment. As Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop announced in late February, the historic venue will undergo a $72 million facelift, as The Jersey Journal reported. The city is partnering with Devils Arena Entertainment, which operates the Prudential Center, to create a state-of-the-art entertainment venue for world-class and up-and-coming performers. Through the arrangement that the mayor outlined, the Friends of the Loew’s also will continue to produce and present diverse, affordable programs with community groups, nonprofits, and New Jersey arts organizations.

Complete Overhaul

Now the plans for the restoration and renovation are taking shape. Last month, the project architects, OTJ Architects, based in New York City, presented plans on behalf of Devils Arena Entertainment. In a presentation to the Jersey City Historic Preservation (HPC), the architects laid out schematic plans that include restoration of the terra cotta façade and ornamentation, entrance, and the marquee (to its original shape though letters will be replaced by LED panels); construction of a new entry vestibule; installation of a new elevator; and much more.

Furthermore, the plans outline a promising return to original glory with 21st century enhancements and upgrades. The project entails restoring interior ornamental finishes throughout the building and preserving important theater components such as a significant section of the stage foot light; and orchestra and organ lifts. Plans call for the replacement of all seating; up-to-date enhancements of auditorium AV and sound systems; and ADA upgrades such as required barrier-free seating. The Jersey City HPC staff reviewed the conceptual plans and requested a presentation later this year when the proposal is more fully fleshed out.

Beyond this first look by the Jersey City HPC, the Jersey City Planning Board and various state and federal agencies will need to review the project. The principals aim to complete renovations by 2025.

The Loew’s Jersey Theatre

The opulent interior lobby
Photo: City of Jersey City

The Loew’s Jersey Theatre complete restoration and renovation comes at a crucial juncture. We’ve learned even more during the Covid pandemic about the important community- and soul-affirming place of culture and the arts. As the region and world work to defeat and emerge from the Covid epidemic, this project is resilience bound up in bricks and mortar with investment and community, and is a catalyst of the Journal Square revitalization.

The theater project brings together a major successful commercial operator, a committed and successful community preservation and cultural group, and the Jersey City government in a potential win-win for all, and particularly for Jersey City and the regeneration of Journal Square. The commercial programming will help the city leverage economic development and other funding for the theater’s renovation, as Colin Egan, director of the Friends of the Loew’s, wrote in an op-ed for The Jersey Journal.

Moreover, it’s a win-win for the Earth. Buildings that are preserved, reused, renovated, and revitalized are more efficient and less costly to the environment and, critically, substantially better for the planet’s climate. Consider the situation if the original Hartz Mountain Industries plan would have happened in 1986, and the company would have demolished this palatial theater to construct a likely undistinguished 1980s office tower. This 92-year-old building remains as a majestic place for film, the arts, multicultural community events, and musical entertainment.

Indeed, this hearkens back to the intention that architect George Rapp articulated. As he observed of why the movie palaces were palatial, “Here is a shrine to democracy where there are no privileged patrons.”

As Egan wrote in the Journal column, “…the Loew’s has always been more than `just’ a business: It was built to be a local architectural icon where everyone would feel special just by being there.”

Further Exploration

Friends of the Loew’s: A Vintage Gallery