Gem Theater

About this property

The Gem Theater is a historic African American movie theater building in the B. W. Cooper neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. The National Register of Historic Places listed the 1951 building which most recently housed the Zony Mash Beer Project. The Gem was conceived in 1948 by the Bijou Amusement Company of Memphis, Tennessee and opened in 1951. Having a theater specifically for African-American residents in their own neighborhood meant that customers weren't relegated to one section with inferior amenities, like in segregated theaters that were ubiquitous at the time. The business plan especially called for serving tenants of the nearby B.W. Cooper Housing Development. The front of the screen included a small stage where a number of prominent African-American performers appeared including jazz trumpeter Avery "Kid" Howard, comedian Onnie "Lollypop" Jones, and jazz singer Alton Purnell. Professional baseball player Roy "Campy" Campanella and his team members competed in a quiz show at the Gem in front of hundreds of African-American children. As a result of new competition with recently desegregated theaters downtown, the Gem closed in 1960. Radio station WBOK bought it later that year for $65,000 to convert it into a studio, but those plans never materialized. Meyer's Auto Parts later bought the building and added a storefront facing Broad Street, using the theater space as a warehouse. Hurricane Katrina damaged the structure in 2005. The building sat vacant and, by 2014, the city scheduled it for demolition. In 2011, the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission designated the building as a municipal landmark. Gregory Ensslen, a local developer, later purchased it with a microbrewery and tap room in mind. However, at that time, the zoning laws of New Orleans did not allow such a business outside industrial areas; the city made an exception for microbreweries making less than 12,500 barrels a year. Wayward Owl Brewing opened in 2016, but left the building two years later with plans to brew elsewhere. In 2019, the Zony Mash Beer Experience opened in the space also as a microbrewery, with live entertainment, food trucks, beer garden and tap room, which can only sell the beer made on site. The business is named after the Zony Mash album by The Meters, a local funk band. Zony Mash closed its doors in spring of 2025, leading the way for the buildings conversion to a baseball-focused training and amusement venue in 2026. Prominent local architects Felix Julius Dreyfous and Solis Seiferth designed the building in 1948. They previously worked on designing Charity Hospital and the new Louisiana State Capitol.

Location

Categories

Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

More in Orleans County

Historic places, battles, and census history across Orleans County.

More historic places in Louisiana

Browse all historic places in Louisiana.

Conflict records

Explore 19,000+ military engagements across American history.

Louisiana history

Colonial settlement, territorial period, and statehood narrative.