Media group buys Sattler Theatre and plans $1 million restoration
By Mark Sommer
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 05/06/08 6:36 AM
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- The Sattler Theater at 512-516 Broadway will be renovated to house the headquarters of Western New York Minority Media Professionals.
New life is being projected for a run-down former movie theater on the East Side noted for its glazed terra-cotta facade.
A group of black media professionals has purchased the former Sattler Theatre, 512-516 Broadway, one mile east of Main Street, to serve as its headquarters and presentation space.
The nonprofit group paid $40,000 to acquire the building from God’s Holy Temple and will seek to raise more than $1 million for its restoration, according to Michael Quinniey, chairman of Western New York Minority Media Professionals.
The group also hopes to build an additional media training lab and a Minorities in Media hall of fame directly behind the building.
“We have a mountain to climb, but oh, what a good mountain to climb,” said Quinniey, who works as a technical engineer at WKBW-TV, Channel 7, and is a producer of independent programming.
“We can preserve history, provide access for the community to a multipurpose facility and teach multimedia skills to young people.”
The group’s Reginald Wallace envisions the building showing movies again, as well as housing a range of events ranging from theatrical performances and awards ceremonies to business conferences.
The theater, near Jefferson Avenue, opened in 1914 as a 928-seat movie theater at a cost of $35,000 on the site of the wood-frame Casino Theatre, according to local theater historian Ranjit Sandhu. It was commissioned by John G. Sattler, who also owned Sattler’s Department Store at 998 Broadway.
The Sattler was designed in the Beaux Arts style by Henry Spann, who later designed North Park Theatre on Hertel Avenue and the former Savoy Theatre on William Street, the longtime home of the Buffalo Criterion newspaper. The Sattler changed hands in 1920 and was rechristened the Broadway Theatre, later known as Basil’s Broadway.
The white terra-cotta building, which has been shuttered for 12 years, with its entrance and windows boarded up, retains decorative patterns accented in blue, red, yellow and green.
The first phase of the project will be to raise funds for Watts Architecture and Engineering in Amherst to prepare a structural analysis, conceptual design and cost estimate to move the project forward, Quinniey said.
Edward Watts Jr. said a cursory walkthrough of the building found it “in remarkably good condition, considering its age and the fact it hasn’t been inhabited in a number of years.”
Watts said masonry apparently would need to be replaced on the back and side walls of the building. Terra cotta on the front and plaster details on the inside would need to be replicated. He said the roof’s slight pitch and its drainage system appear to have minimized water damage.
“We’re excited to be a part of the project and will do what we can to help restore it to its former glory,” Watts said.
The building became Muhammad’s Mosque 23 in the mid-1960s and was purchased and occupied by God’s Holy Temple from 1976 to 1984. The building was leased to Joy Temple Church from 1987 to 1996.
Rose Craig, secretary of God’s Holy Temple, remembers paying 12 cents to see movies at the movie theater in the 1940s.
“Everybody went to the movies — that was big entertainment,” said Craig, a lifelong East Side resident who recalled the pretelevision days. “It was a real nice neighborhood theater, and we used to [often] go three times a week. They played everything.”
