Excitement on Market Street!

The Queen 1, originally uploaded by Delaware Historical Society.

We had some excitement on Market St. this morning for the groundbreaking of the Queen Theatre – the building right next door to the Delaware History Museum.

To put the groundbreaking into historical perspective – it’s not a new building. In fact, there has been something at 500 Market since the 1800s (if not before!)

However, the groundbreaking was the start a restoration project that will restore the Queen to a performing arts venue called World Cafe Live (there is another World Cafe Live in Philadelphia) and a place to broadcast live with WXPN. In case you can’t tell – I’m excited that there will be such a vibrant musical community right next door to the Delaware History Museum and across the street from our library!!!

The Queen truly is a gem along Market Street (one of my absolute favorite buildings!) It also has an interesting history.

Indian Queen Hotel, 1850

It was the Indian Queen Hotel in the mid 1800s.

Clayton House Hotel, 1893

In 1873 the building (as we know it today) opened as the Clayton House hotel. This was an elegant hotel and the second largest building in Wilmington. It had 105 guest rooms, sitting rooms, and parlors. By 1878 it became the first hotel in Delaware to have a passenger elevator and hundreds of people came just to rid up and down. The hotel entrance has two banks and there were stores at the bottom on the King Street side. It closed as the hotel in the early 1900s.

1899

The building reopened in 1916 as the Queen Theatre. It was a movie palace. Vaudeville shows were also performed there regularly.

Queen Theatre, 1940s

It remained open as a movie theater but declined in popularity after World War II. It closed in 1959 and it’s been vacant ever since.

So…you can understand why we’re so excited to have such a great space being restored!!! The ground breaking was complete with live musicians, crowds in attendance, and excitement about the project. For more information you can visit the web site of the Light up The Queen Foundation: http://www.lightupthequeen.org They have some FABULOUS images of the inside!!!!

Until 11:45 Next, Andrea

Some other shots of The Queen Today and Images from the Groundbreaking Celebration: