Q I went to the old Public School 6, at Madison and 85th, and we used to go to the Trans-Lux Theater across the street. Is there a photograph of it? ... Jeannie Kligman, Rye Brook, N.Y.
A Reproduced here is a photograph of the theater from 1937, showing the Tennessee marble facade and stainless steel trim.
The building was designed by the theater architect Thomas Lamb in a severe moderne style. According to Warren G. Harris, the theater historian, the 85th Street Trans-Lux opened on Nov. 1, 1937, with 586 seats. The small auditorium was typical of the Trans-Lux operation, offering short subjects and newsreels like “The March of Time.”
The Trans-Lux was a significant element in a little urban scrapbook of random architecture. On one side of it was an 1892 apartment house designed by John H. Duncan, matched to a row of houses stretching down to the 84th Street corner. In 1929 the architect Frank S. Parker remodeled the front and installed oval show windows on the second floor, just visible in the photograph.
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