Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. This is the rink but date is unknown however, by looking at clothing, it points to 1890s. Likely it was original building before it wsa either burned down or demolished because the next few photos showed narrower. The illustration or it was based off a photograph illustration, it appeared to be twice wider, maybe three times wider than the building today. Proof is you compare this above with 3rd photos below from top. Source: Hidden City Philia.
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. This was when it was AMC Palace Theater. Taken in 1980s because of the cars. Source: Cinemas Treasure.
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. You can see the original wall is gone and they covered up more flattened on the vertical front. Boyd's department store is there. Source: Google.
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. I love the shades, really. Source: Google.
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA. 2019. Without the Royal Blue shades. I liked it with the shades. Source: Google.
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA
Theater 1812 Skating Rink 1812 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This rink was operational for a time but also it was a theater. The name bears the address number. Originally this theater was called Chestnut Street Theater.
I could not get more history before that because there is a website you could not get much history because you only get a PDF and cannot access more than one page. I had to register and still could not and so I would not accept that as a source. But they said it goes back far as late 18th Century.. in around 1780s. Philadelphia was already a major metropolitan at the time of the American Revolution and new birth of the United States of America. Theaters were popping up and opening at the time George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were Presidents of the United States of America.
In New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were common with theaters. During 1800s, it was already set as a roller rink thanks to that headline picture from Hidden City Philia. This showed a huge Half Barrel Arch roofed building that it does not really match anything in Google Maps nor maps I have from USGS that goes back to 1947. Likely it was either demolished or burned down. Burning is more likely occurrence because burning was more common at the time and because of no fire and building codes were built at the time. And electricity was still infant that wires were not fireproof and can cause structure fires. Many rinks I worked on from this era burned down often because of poorly built or the wires were not black-wired. Nothing I can find. And pretty much empty history between the rink and more recent times as theaters/a meeting hall/and now a first class clothing department store.
But it was more known at the start of 20th Century as the Chestnut Street Theater. It was not until 1960s it was called Theater 1812. Perhaps the skating rink occurred between those times.
Perhaps the roller rink closed in 1967. Theater 1812 during 1960s was an independent first-run which also ran during 1970s first opened on 07 July 1967 showing “The Jokers” starring with Michael Crawford. “The Lion in Winter” ran for 39 weeks, starting 03 November 1968, The theater switched gears to show adult films. Then they closed for good.
Eventually, it became a meeting hall for the city teachers' union. Then the union closed the place in November 1982. Later the theater was leased by Budco and reopened as the Palace Theatre in 04 November 1983. When AMC acquired Budco, this theater was the only single-screen theatre in their chain. It closed for good in exactly to the month ten years later.
This is odd, November is the targeted month for this building. Either to open or to close for any businesses.
Eventually it became Boyd's.
According to Google Map, it became Boyd's department store. They had wonderful window decorations that should rival many city department stores with such as mannequins wearing the clothes the stores are wearing and theme décor as well as functions of the décor. In 2020 and more recent, Boyd's got rid of that. It is all blackout. Real sad. They removed nice Royal Blue canvas shades and banners. But now, no more shades and it has black banners. Everything in black. Sure is bleak in this decade. The Decade of Bleak. Or you can call it the Bleak Decade. It is the Bleak Decade.
So, the famous curved marquee is gone. The department store removed that. They own 3 buildings that are adjected to each other. Jointed by the hip as they say for any city buildings in any major cities around the world. Even Medium sized or small cities. always joined. Even during the Wild West, with just 2 or 3 buildings.. they are joined. You have seen TV shows set in Western, they do.
Entertainment no more. The store may now have that area as closed off.
Timeline--
1803(?) to N/A: Chestnut Street Theatre.
19th C. to N/A: Theater 1812 Roller Rink. Chestnut Street Theatre.
07 July 1967 to N/A: Theater 1812.
N/A to November 1992: Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall.
04 November 1983 to November 1992 Palace Theatre.
After November 1992 to Present: Boyd's Department Store.
The Interior.
Likely the floor itself was Maple or similar that was lay down for skating. Non-skaters can watch skaters from second floor balcony anywhere and it was a Half-Barrel Ceiling meaning truly had Half-Barrel Roof although it is not seen in modern Google map images. It may have been demolished and renovated into a theater some times after the rink closed. Since I have no dates, only proof are the postcard and the article (see sources) to show when. The article failed to stated when it was a rink. Postcard pointed to the era people dressed as in late 19th Century or very start of 20th Century. Anyone can vertify this?
The Exterior.
It was a two story building however, the illustration of the rink was shown to be turn of the century.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: During 19th Century. Renovations: Several. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks or Stone - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Half Barrel Arched.
Acres: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Stage/Auditorium: 1 (See timeline/Operated)
Movie Theater: 1 (See timeline/Operated)
Operated: (Overall)-- 19th C. to c.1967.
Chestnut Street Theatre: 19th C. (Stage)
Theater 1812 Roller Rink: 19th C to N/A..
Theater 1812: 07 July 1967 to N/A. (Movies)
Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall: N/A to November 1992. (Auditorium meeting hall)
AMC Palace Theatre: 04 November 1983 to November 1992. (Movies)
Boyd's Department Store: After November 1992 to Present.
Reason for Closure:
Chestnut Street Theatre: N/A.
Theater 1812 Roller Rink: N/A.
Theater 1812: N/A.
Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall: N/A. (Auditorium meeting hall)
AMC Palace Theatre: N/A. (Movies)
Boyd's Department Store: Still operational.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Dead-Rinks. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Cinema Treasure - Theater 1812.
Hidden City Philia - About roller rinks in Philadelphia, PA.
Boyd's
History of Philadelphia - Mentioned the theater as early as 1803! By J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. (History from 1609 to 1889). Volume II. Page 1145!
Date of issue: 31 July 2022.
For office use only: 5.
Worth to visit:
None. Unless you want to spend thousands of dollars for clothes in Boyd's. Way expensive! 1000 USD for shoes!? 300 dollars for a T-shirt? Man! Nuts. Just stick to window shopping OUTSIDE.
DISCLAIMER:
Dead-Rinks and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on Dead-Rinks are not the property of Dead-Rinks therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved becomes property of Dead-Rinks and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Dead-Rinks List.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 16. Deut. 32:7.
I could not get more history before that because there is a website you could not get much history because you only get a PDF and cannot access more than one page. I had to register and still could not and so I would not accept that as a source. But they said it goes back far as late 18th Century.. in around 1780s. Philadelphia was already a major metropolitan at the time of the American Revolution and new birth of the United States of America. Theaters were popping up and opening at the time George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were Presidents of the United States of America.
In New York, Boston, and Philadelphia were common with theaters. During 1800s, it was already set as a roller rink thanks to that headline picture from Hidden City Philia. This showed a huge Half Barrel Arch roofed building that it does not really match anything in Google Maps nor maps I have from USGS that goes back to 1947. Likely it was either demolished or burned down. Burning is more likely occurrence because burning was more common at the time and because of no fire and building codes were built at the time. And electricity was still infant that wires were not fireproof and can cause structure fires. Many rinks I worked on from this era burned down often because of poorly built or the wires were not black-wired. Nothing I can find. And pretty much empty history between the rink and more recent times as theaters/a meeting hall/and now a first class clothing department store.
But it was more known at the start of 20th Century as the Chestnut Street Theater. It was not until 1960s it was called Theater 1812. Perhaps the skating rink occurred between those times.
Perhaps the roller rink closed in 1967. Theater 1812 during 1960s was an independent first-run which also ran during 1970s first opened on 07 July 1967 showing “The Jokers” starring with Michael Crawford. “The Lion in Winter” ran for 39 weeks, starting 03 November 1968, The theater switched gears to show adult films. Then they closed for good.
Eventually, it became a meeting hall for the city teachers' union. Then the union closed the place in November 1982. Later the theater was leased by Budco and reopened as the Palace Theatre in 04 November 1983. When AMC acquired Budco, this theater was the only single-screen theatre in their chain. It closed for good in exactly to the month ten years later.
This is odd, November is the targeted month for this building. Either to open or to close for any businesses.
Eventually it became Boyd's.
According to Google Map, it became Boyd's department store. They had wonderful window decorations that should rival many city department stores with such as mannequins wearing the clothes the stores are wearing and theme décor as well as functions of the décor. In 2020 and more recent, Boyd's got rid of that. It is all blackout. Real sad. They removed nice Royal Blue canvas shades and banners. But now, no more shades and it has black banners. Everything in black. Sure is bleak in this decade. The Decade of Bleak. Or you can call it the Bleak Decade. It is the Bleak Decade.
So, the famous curved marquee is gone. The department store removed that. They own 3 buildings that are adjected to each other. Jointed by the hip as they say for any city buildings in any major cities around the world. Even Medium sized or small cities. always joined. Even during the Wild West, with just 2 or 3 buildings.. they are joined. You have seen TV shows set in Western, they do.
Entertainment no more. The store may now have that area as closed off.
Timeline--
1803(?) to N/A: Chestnut Street Theatre.
19th C. to N/A: Theater 1812 Roller Rink. Chestnut Street Theatre.
07 July 1967 to N/A: Theater 1812.
N/A to November 1992: Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall.
04 November 1983 to November 1992 Palace Theatre.
After November 1992 to Present: Boyd's Department Store.
The Interior.
Likely the floor itself was Maple or similar that was lay down for skating. Non-skaters can watch skaters from second floor balcony anywhere and it was a Half-Barrel Ceiling meaning truly had Half-Barrel Roof although it is not seen in modern Google map images. It may have been demolished and renovated into a theater some times after the rink closed. Since I have no dates, only proof are the postcard and the article (see sources) to show when. The article failed to stated when it was a rink. Postcard pointed to the era people dressed as in late 19th Century or very start of 20th Century. Anyone can vertify this?
The Exterior.
It was a two story building however, the illustration of the rink was shown to be turn of the century.
The Stats:
Rink Size: N/A. Floor: Wood. Floor Layout: N/A.
Building Size: N/A. Built: During 19th Century. Renovations: Several. Demolished: Still standing.
Type of Building: Free-Span Steel Trusses Cinderblocks or Stone - Walled Arena - like Building.
Roof: Half Barrel Arched.
Acres: N/A.
Organ: N/A.
10 Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Duck Pins Bowling Lanes: None.
Candlestick Bowling Lanes: None.
Pocket Billiard Tables: N/A.
Amusement Rides: None.
Driving Range Slots: None.
Miniature Golf Course: None.
Arcade: (Number unknown)
Skee-Ball: N/A.
Fascination: None.
Restaurant: None.
Cocktail lounge: None.
Laser Tag: None.
Bounce Houses: None.
Bumper Cars: None.
Go-Kart: None.
Motel: None.
Swimming Pool: None.
Stage/Auditorium: 1 (See timeline/Operated)
Movie Theater: 1 (See timeline/Operated)
Operated: (Overall)-- 19th C. to c.1967.
Chestnut Street Theatre: 19th C. (Stage)
Theater 1812 Roller Rink: 19th C to N/A..
Theater 1812: 07 July 1967 to N/A. (Movies)
Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall: N/A to November 1992. (Auditorium meeting hall)
AMC Palace Theatre: 04 November 1983 to November 1992. (Movies)
Boyd's Department Store: After November 1992 to Present.
Reason for Closure:
Chestnut Street Theatre: N/A.
Theater 1812 Roller Rink: N/A.
Theater 1812: N/A.
Philadelphia Teachers' Union Meeting Hall: N/A. (Auditorium meeting hall)
AMC Palace Theatre: N/A. (Movies)
Boyd's Department Store: Still operational.
Wanted: Information regarding exact dates of open/closed, why closed, size of rink, rink materials. Also, photos/articles. Anyone knows or have photos, please let me know by emailing at Dead-Rinks. Thank you. You can also use this form.
Sources:
Cinema Treasure - Theater 1812.
Hidden City Philia - About roller rinks in Philadelphia, PA.
Boyd's
History of Philadelphia - Mentioned the theater as early as 1803! By J. Thomas Scharf and Thompson Westcott. (History from 1609 to 1889). Volume II. Page 1145!
Date of issue: 31 July 2022.
For office use only: 5.
Worth to visit:
None. Unless you want to spend thousands of dollars for clothes in Boyd's. Way expensive! 1000 USD for shoes!? 300 dollars for a T-shirt? Man! Nuts. Just stick to window shopping OUTSIDE.
DISCLAIMER:
Dead-Rinks and Mark Falso are not responsible for your physical and legal injuries you may have caused. We do not endorse such illegal activities including breaking and entry of former rinks, malls, abandoned buildings, etc. Please always obey laws and regulations and property owner's signs. Some states allow purple paint on fence which means they even have guns on their property and have rights to shoot you. Please DO NOT attempt to enter property without permission!
For abandoned rinks, after you receive permission, do WEAR safety OSHA equipment including a safety glasses, pair of safety gloves, an orange vest or a jacket, and a construction helmet.
Thank you for understanding.
Second of all: The contents including words and photos above on this page and/or on any pages are purely educational entertainment purposes only. I provide what information from other websites, skaters, and operators and it may end up with different results between two (or more) sources. It is not our responsible for errors we caused. All sources are shown on each page. All opinions and statements of mine are also stated and are for purely educational entertainment only.
Rinks that are closed are considered dead. Rinks that are/were sold and with new management names new name(s), the former are considered dead. Previous operating rink that closed but came back years later, are considered dead because the reopening is considered rebooted, nothing to do with the former.
As for “For Office Only” is for my reasoning and private legal reason for that.
Any music associated with any YouTube or any other videos provided on Dead-Rinks are not the property of Dead-Rinks therefore we do not own the rights to the music.
All photos you submitted or we retrieved becomes property of Dead-Rinks and are watermarked but they are credited to you (or where the source is from). Thank you for understanding. To understand more about this, please go to this page: Dead-Rinks List.
© Copyrighted by Dead-Rinks, an International Commercial Archeology Preservation© Group. All Rights Reserved. Jn 3:3 to 16. Deut. 32:7.