Before the movie marquee and the jazz murals, the building known as the New Granada Theater was designed for fraternity and community.
The Colored Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order, had built it as a temple with a large banquet hall where the members would perform drills, and an auditorium that could be converted into a basketball court. It was designed by a prominent Black architect Louis Bellinger and remains one of his few known structures in Pittsburgh.
Duke Ellington is said to have been crowned the “King of Jazz” at the New Granada. Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway and James Brown all graced the venue before it deteriorated and sat empty for decades since the late 1960s.
“This building documents early African American life in the 20th century,” said Marimba Milliones, president and CEO of the Hill Community Development Corporation. “That's worth documenting. That's worth saving.”
Ms. Milliones has been working to save the historic theater for two decades. The groundbreaking event that the CDC organized on Thursday to mark the beginning of renovations — at the New Granada Theater and 5,000 square feet of retail space adjacent to the building — was also a celebration of her ability to “walk through walls,” said Bill Generett, senior vice president for civic engagement and external relations at Duquesne University.
The historic building is being refashioned into a multi-purpose event venue, a cafe lounge, and a University of Pittsburgh Community Engagement Center on the top floor, which will have jazz and African poetry programs and a digital inclusion center.
Pitt signed on as an anchor tenant for the project with 10,000 square feet of space in the historic theater and another 10,000 square feet in a yet to be constructed office building next door, slated for the corner of Centre and Devillier Streets.
Hill CDC, with a different set of project partners, has already finished the $16.5 million apartment building above the retail space which is fully occupied and geared toward Black artists.
The New Granada Theater redevelopment got a boost as part of a deal struck earlier this month for a different live music venue and a 910-space parking garage slated to be built on the lower Hill District property adjacent to PPG Paints Arena.
The Sports and Exhibition Authority and Pittsburgh Urban Redevelopment Authority voted unanimously to approve the plans after a round of last-minute negotiations between the Pittsburgh Penguins, the city, and other stakeholders, including the Hill CDC, regarding certain neighborhood benefits.
Some of those benefits included committing Live Nation, the promoter for the Penguins’ music venue, to a five-year engagement with the New Granada Theater. The team also will make up to 250 parking spaces available for free at the former Civic Arena site for New Granada events for the first five years and donate $100,000 to the Hill CDC to support the theater through the Penguins Foundation.
Days after the approval, leaders of the Hill District Consensus Group, the Hill District Collaborative, and Uptown Partners of Pittsburgh ripped the decision to support the theater. They argued that the emphasis should have been on housing.
“Our first priority, the city must understand, is housing. Our second priority is housing. And our third priority is housing,” said Randall Taylor, equitable developer officer for the Hill District Consensus Group.
The Hill CDC responded that it was ensuring that benefits already promised to the community years ago are realized with the new development in the Lower Hill.
“The New Granada project is the most essential economic development project in the Hill District neighborhood and has been a focus of redevelopment for decades under many Mayoral administrations,” the organization replied in a memo on May 15.
“With the Lower Hill entertainment venue and parking garage receiving tens of millions in tax dollars, it would be unconscionable to not ensure that the City of Pittsburgh and (Urban Redevelopment Authority) are investing in this historic project that is not only important to the Hill District, but nationally.”
Standing in front the New Granada on Thursday, Cindy Young-Smith said she’s been waiting for this day for years.
Ms. Young-Smith grew up in the area and as she rode the bus along Centre Avenue every day, she watched storefronts and homes empty out. She saw the hollowed out windows of the once-great New Granada Theater and wondered if anyone was going to bring it back to life.
This is the revival she was hoping for.
“It’s past time” she said.
Anya Litvak: Alitvak@post-gazette.com
This story was updated at 1:45 p.m. on Friday to clarify that the development team for the historic theater is different from the one that built the residential space on the same block.
First Published: May 26, 2023, 9:30 a.m.
Updated: May 27, 2023, 8:00 p.m.
