A Little-Known Slice Of New York History Can Be Found At This Church
By John Williams|Published March 22, 2024
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John Williams
Author
John Williams is a writer based in New York City. He's been living in the state for over a decade. He loves nothing more than checking out some great regional cuisine and then taking a long walk in the park.
In New York City, there’s all sorts of history that is just hiding under everyone’s noses. Case in point is The Tabernacle of Prayer for All People church in Jamaica, Queens. It’s more than just a church—it used to be one of New York City’s pioneering movie houses. It’s probably our favorite historic cinema in New York that people can still visit today. To learn more, keep reading, below.
Before it was a church, the building that houses The Tabernacle of Prayer for All People used to be a luxury cinema called Lowe’s Valencia Theatre. The building was designed to be an exterior landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1999.
The theater, which seats 3,500 people, opened in 1929. It was part of five Loew’s Wonder Theaters, and featured an organ and some incredible architecture. It was a major hit for residents of Queens and beyond—many from the Long Island area would make the trip to check out a film.
The theater was designed by John Eberson and featured an interior with Spanish Colonial and pre-Columbian architectural styles. The facade was constructed out of brick and terra cotta in a way that mirrored the Spanish and Mexican style popular during the Baroque period.
Until 1935, both live performances and films happened at the theater. After that, it was all movies. The theater ran into hard times in the 1970s—innovations in home video made it harder and harder for the cinema to fill its massive amount of seats.
It was in 1977, though, that the cinema was donated to the Tabernacle of Prayer, who spent around a quarter of a million dollars to get the theater back to its former glory.
The church added an 18-foot chandelier imported from Greece and re-did the stage, among other restorations. The original organ in the theater eventually moved to the Balboa Theatre in San Diego in 2009, where it was restored. But the spirit of the theater’s roots lives on in the untouched parts of its decor.
This church is really something to see—trust us, movie fans are going to not want to miss a look at what was once a historic cinema in New York! While in Queens, why not also check out the neighborhood of Flushing, which we think has some of the best Chinese food in all of America. And for those looking for a place to stay in New York City, we recommend the centrally-located Hyatt Centric Times Square.
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