Royal Theater (St. Petersburg, Florida)

The Royal Theater was a quonset hut style theater for African-American in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is located at 1011 22nd Street South and operated from 1948 to 1966. Designed by architect Philip F. Kennard for the Gulf Coast Entertainment Company, it was one of two movie theaters serving African-Americans during the era of segregation, the other was the Harlem Theater at 1019 Third Avenue South (demolished). Of the twelve public theaters outside of the African-American community only the LaPlaza Theater was not segregated. The theater closed a few years after desegregation and the Civil Rights Act 1964. By 1975 it was used as a youth center. The quonset hut design was developed by George A. Fuller construction company of New York which used a British prototype from the First World War called a "Nissen" hut. and were produced in a plant near Quonset, Rhode Island.