[3] Built in 1914, and designed by architect Thomas H. Scott and financed by David E. Park, a steel-industry scion and banker,[1] the Garden Theater exhibits a Beaux Arts style.

According to a 14-page Historical American Buildings Survey data sheet from 1978, "motion picture theaters became more substantial and dignified than the earlier Nickelodeons.

The Garden Theater is a typical little-changed neighborhood movie house of this century's second decade.

"[1] Bennett Amdursky managed the theater from the time it opened, purchased it from Park's son in 1924, and ran it until his death in 1970.

[4] The theater along with several other buildings including the former Masonic Hall located in the same block along North Avenue, were later sold to a Philadelphia-based development company.