Eugene De Rosa


Eugene De Rosa was an Italian American architect. He worked in New York City and specialized in the design of theatres.
De Rosa's business flourished from 1918 to 1929, particularly during the Roaring Twenties, but it largely declined during the Great Depression. During the 1930s he spent some years in London and settled for a while in Naples. Toward the end of World War II he was reported to be back in New York and beginning to work on post-war theatre projects, just before his death.

Early life

De Rosa was born in Calabria, in the far south of mainland Italy, in 1894. While he was a small child, his parents emigrated to the United States, arriving through Ellis Island and settling in New York City, where they were living by 1898. De Rosa had four brothers, Felix, Jerry, Vincent, and John; and a sister, Sylvia. His brother Felix also became an architect.

Career

By 1918, De Rosa was practicing as an architect, quickly choosing to specialize in theatre design. An early project was his Vanderbilt Theatre, New York. By 1919 he was in a partnership called "De Rosa & Pereira", and that year he represented several clients in appeals against decisions of the superintendent of buildings of the City of New York.
During the 1920s, De Rosa obtained many more commissions for new theatres. The great driving force during his Roaring Twenties career was "the phenomenal growth in popularity of motion pictures", and his early work included the Times Square Theatre, the Apollo Theatre on 42nd Street, and Klaw Theatre. One important design for a site on Hyatt Street in St. George, Staten Island, provided not just a grand new theatre, the St. George Theatre, but also stores and offices.
De Rosa's business was largely destroyed by the Great Depression of the 1930s, during which he took the opportunity to travel overseas. He spent some years in London and settled for a while in Naples, where in 1935 he was reported to be "wonderfully helpful" to American and English visitors. His brother Felix De Rosa, also an architect, sold insurance during the Depression.
Before or during the World War II, De Rosa returned to New York City, where by 1944 he was working on new theatre projects. However, his death in 1945 prevented the revival of his career.

Work

Several of De Rosa's theatres are still standing, among them the 1000-seat Lafayette Theatre, Suffern, an Adamesque building with a combination of French and Italian Renaissance influences ornamented in the Beaux Arts manner. An improvement scheme in 1927 added six distinctive opera boxes and further balcony seating. Unlike many others, the Lafayette was spared from demolition and multiplexing and continues to be used as a single-screen movie theatre.
Another surviving work is the Broadway Theatre, built in New York City in 1924, and originally known as the "B. S. Moss's Colony Theatre".
Gallo Opera House in New York City, built in 1927 for Fortune Gallo, was renamed as the Gallo Theatre, then Studio 52, and since 1977 has been known as Studio 54, a nightclub and theatre.
De Rosa's huge 2,800-seat St. George Theatre in St. George, Staten Island, begun in 1928, cost $500,000 for the theatre alone and was part of a greater development project worth some $2,000,000. The theatre opened on December 4, 1929, only weeks after the Wall Street crash of 1929, and remains in use. It is now owned by St. George Theatre Restoration Inc., a non-profit organization which aims to restore the building and to develop it as a performing arts and cultural center. Most of the ornate interior was designed not by De Rosa but by Nestor Castro.

List of theatres

Abandoned projects

  • 8th Street Playhouse, earlier designs
  • B.S. Moss, 8th Ave & 22nd Street,
  • Loew's 72nd Street Theatre, 188 East 72nd Street, New York, built with designs by John Eberson in 1927
  • Marlboro Theatre, 4915 Broadway, New York, later Mercedes Theatre for Paramount, and plans in 1936 redrawn but abandoned.
  • MP Theatre, 137-9 West 72nd

Alterations

Publications

  • Eugene De Rosa, ''Selections from the recent work of Eugene De Rosa, architect: 15 West 44th Street, New York''