Howard Haas from Philadelphia shares this blog post about the sad fate of Philadelphia’s Girard Theatre:
PHILADELPHIA, PA — In Search Of The Girard
Blog Post Dated JANUARY 21, 2013 | Written by GROJLART, taken from hiddencityphila.org
“…The interior is more or less altered beyond recognition, but its hard to tell what actually remains since a low drop ceiling hides most of the theater’s details. An old mezzanine (or balcony?) sticks out above the dairy section, showing some surviving McElfatrick-designed plaster details, and the proscenium arch still exists in what is now a storeroom behind the meat counter. Sadly, this is the only Philadelphia theater designed by John Bailey McElfatrick that still stands (his son, William McElfatrick, designed the Metropolitan Opera House a few blocks away)…” (read the entire post at hiddencityphila.org)
A search of the THS archives turned up these slide images of the historic interior of the Girard Theatre from our files:
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- Interior Images from Girard Theatre. Year Unknown.
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- Interior Images from Girard Theatre. Year Unknown.
To my knowledge the auditorium remains intact above a suspended ceiling of lay-in tiles. I sneaked into the stage a year or so ago–it is empty and all rigging has been removed. The building currently us used as a neighborhood supermarket.