Pagoda Palace

The site at the intersection of Powell Street and Columbus Avenue held a long-running theater for over a century. Known variously as the Washington Square Theatre, the Milano, the Palace, and finally the Pagoda Palace, the building served as a landmark across from Washington Square. It opened in nineteen oh eight for Italian dramas and opera, later becoming a movie house. Between nineteen sixty-nine and nineteen seventy-one, the theater famously hosted the Cockettes, a local drag troupe known for their midnight revues.