Historic Music Venue Transforms into Community Center

In 1925 B. G. Collier, head of the African American Grand Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, purchased lots in the Hill District neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Hill District is often referred to as Pittsburgh’s Harlem, due to its historically rich cultural and artistic environment that remains prevalent to the present day. In 1927, Collier commissioned prominent African American Architect Louis A. S. Bellinger of Pittsburgh, to build the Pythian Temple, a fraternal lodge and commercial building for Black construction workers to enjoy community events, music, and more. Bellinger was working as one of only sixty black architects in the United States in the 1930s. Located at 2007-2013 Centre Avenue, the three-story building designed in a Tudor Revival style was completed in 1928 and became one of the largest and most prominent secular buildings in the Hill District. 

Bellinger’s architectural vision for the Temple formed the blueprint for the Temple’s transformation in 1937 when Harry Hendel, a promoter and theater owner, bought the Temple and remodeled it as a commercial theater. After the transformation, the building was known as the New Granada Theater. The first floor became a commercial movie theater while the second floor housed a ballroom with a stage where jazz greats played. Harlem musicians touring from New York City to Chicago would stop at the New Granada theater to play on the second-floor stage. Jazz legends such as Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington all played at the Theater during its prime.  

Through the decades, the Theater’s popularity slowly declined, and it was finally closed in the mid-1970s. During a period of vacancy between its closure and 1990, the interior suffered extensive damage after the roof collapsed. In 1990, Hill CDC purchased the Theater to save it from demolition. Since then, Hill CDC has committed itself to restoring the New Granada Theater to a place of prominence and cultural enrichment in the Hill District.