9. Corona Plaza has one of the oldest Theaters in Queens
Anchoring Corona Plaza on 103rd Street and Roosevelt Avenue is one of Queens’ oldest theaters. First opened in 1927 with the extension of the 7 train through Corona, the Lowe’s Plaza Theater featured vaudeville performances and early black-and-white films. In the years following the opening of Lowe’s modern and upscale Valencia Theater in Jamaica, the Plaza Theater in Corona began to lose its prestige. When the theater company Lowe’s was broken up by antitrust laws in 1952, the Plaza Theater was bought by Century Circuit, which ran it as a low-budget movie theater. In the 1990s, the Plaza Theater changed hands again, and this time it was run as an independent theater catering to the new Latino immigrant population by showing Hollywood films subtitled in Spanish.
Unfortunately, this local, community-oriented independent theater closed its doors in 2005 and two chain stores, Walgreens and Pollo Campero, moved in. Today, the Plaza Theater still contains the Walgreens and Pollo Campero, but it is also home to two small businesses, Sabor Guatemalteco and U-Crew Thai Creamery and Tea, the Romero law firm, run by first-generation Ecuadorian lawyer Anibal Romero, as well as a nutritionist’s office and the Aliento de Vida church. While the theater continues to serve the community as a hub for local businesses and institutions, its original, ornamental tin-tiled ceilings still exist behind closed doors.
