RIO DISTRICT- theatre, hotel, apartments and shops located where Fort Washington Ave meets Broadway at W. 159th Street

The elegantly curved Rio Vista Hotel on lower Fort Washington Avenue has been reclaimed from its status as an abandoned, boarded up building and will now provide apartments for 100 homeless and low-income people.
Once a boarded up eyesore in the neighborhood, the Rio’s handsome façade of yellow brick, stone and terra cotta ornamentation have been scrubbed clean, causing it to stand out in a neighborhood of graffitied apartment buildings.  Inside,  the gutted building has been transformed into a bright and cheerful environment of apartments, community rooms, support services and even a penthouse.  The 82 units in the building cost approximately $37,000 each to build, according to Harriette Epstein, a spokesperson for the CSS (Community Service Society).  The Rio, a 4-floor building located where Fort Washington Avenue curves to join Broadway at W. 159th Street,  was built in 1920 by Loew’s movie company which built and owned many movie palaces before the 1950s.
Behind the hotel on Broadway was the Loew’s RIO THEATRE (W. 160th), a 2600 seat vaudeville and silent movie palace. Many vaudeville performers would stay in the hotel Rio Vista, just behind the Rio Theatre for convenience. When talking pictures came in, the Rio Theatre installed  sound equipment in 1930 but gradually it’s business fell off because of other theatres opening in the Heights area.
The theatre closed in March 1957 and the hotel closed soon after. The theatre was gutted and became a supermarket and other retail stores for 50 years.  It is currently being renovated for a new supermarket in the theatre space and the upstairs offices and dressing rooms have been renovated and are available for rent. I went by yesterday and even the old brick façade is being covered to give it a more “modern” appearance. This little corner of Broadway/Fort Washington between W. 159 & W. 160th was known as the Rio. One can only imagine vaudevillians who performed at the Rio, dashing back to the hotel between shows for a quick break while the movies were playing.

Across from the former hotel’s front entrance are two apartment buildings in a charming cul-de-sac a la Paris, built on the elegant “Curve” where 33-block long Fort Washington Avenue branches off of Broadway as a separate boulevard. The style of all the buildings is very much the same…1920’s Spanish renaissance…one apartment building has the name “Rio Vista” and the other has the name “Rio Grande.” Both have recently been bought and renovated….one is now a co-op apartment building. They are located next to the Paradise Baptist Church on the “Curve.”





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