Designed by John Eberson as a movie palace, it opened on January 11, 1929, as one of five Loew's Wonder Theatres in the New York City area.

The lobby section, decorated in a Spanish and Mexican Baroque style, has an elaborate brick-and-terracotta facade with a marquee and ornate finials.

The theater slowly declined after World War II, and it closed in June 1977 due to high costs and low attendance.

[3] The metal-and-glass doors are recessed slightly from the facade, and an octagonal ticket booth protrudes from the middle of the entrance.

[4] The upper stories of the Jamaica Avenue facade are clad with yellow brick and are divided vertically into three bays.

At ground level, the middle of the Merrick Boulevard facade contains a brick niche with a grate leading to a sidewalk vault; three rectangular blind openings; and two more emergency-exit doors.

The northern end of the Merrick Boulevard facade has two archways, as well as a two-story service annex with a garage door and windows.

[12] The interior is adorned in Spanish Colonial and pre–Columbian styles,[13] with a gold, ruby, cobalt, and turquoise color scheme.

[25] The auditorium walls are adorned with statues, parapets and towers, asymmetrically arranged while the ceiling remains unadorned, like a sky above.

[26][15] The side walls have decorations such as windows, railings, balconies, and turrets, which were intended to give the appearance of 17th-century Spanish buildings.

[31][32] In the New York City area, only a small number of operators were involved in the construction of movie palaces.

[3] John Eberson's son Drew, who assisted in the theater's construction, sketched out the stars on the auditorium's ceiling by copying an issue of National Geographic magazine.

[2][53] Its first-ever patron, one "Miss Helen Trascey of Ferndale Avenue", had waited several hours to buy her ticket.

[54] The first film to screened there was White Shadows in the South Seas featuring Monte Blue and Raquel Torres, accompanied by vaudeville performances on stage.

[19][24][52] Initially, the Valencia hosted stage shows and films that had been shown at Manhattan's Capitol Theatre,[16][55] which cost between 25 and 65 cents a ticket.

[40][41] Manufacturers Trust also moved to foreclose on a $9 million mortgage that it had placed on the Valencia and four other Allied theaters.

For example, winners of the Major Bowes Amateur Hour radio show's contest would appear there every Monday night, and actors and singers like Ginger Rogers and Kate Smith also performed there.

[81] To attract customers in the late 1940s, Loew's offered free tickets to residents of the then-new Fresh Meadows housing development.

[82] Following the U.S. Supreme Court's 1948 ruling in United States v. Paramount Pictures, Inc., Loew's Theaters was forced to split up its film-production and film-exhibition divisions.

[24] During the 1950s, in addition to screening films, the Valencia hosted events such as opera performances,[87] jazz concerts,[88] homemaking contests,[89] and televised boxing matches.

[92] The Valencia also hosted events such as women-only film screenings,[93] televised boxing matches,[94] and circus acts during the 1960s and 1970s.

[57][98] The Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, which supported the designation,[98] suggested converting the Valencia into a cultural center.

[99][25] Johnnie Washington, the congregation's pastor, described the theater as "a miracle, a gift from God",[25] [4]and Jennifer Raab (who later served as the LPC's chairwoman) said that Loew's had received "a special message from above" when it donated the Valencia.

[20] The Tabernacle of Prayer subsequently restored the theater[18][57] and hired George Exarchou to carry out the work.

[26] A 1998 article from the New York Daily News stated that the Tabernacle of Prayer had spent $200,000 painting the theater and $100,000 on various other fixes.

[60] The LPC designated the Valencia as an exterior landmark on May 25, 1999,[57][105] making it one of two theaters in Queens with city-landmark status, after the RKO Keith's in Flushing.

[7] When the theater was built, official press releases called it a "Spanish patio garden in gay regalia for a moonlit festival".

[24] By the 1970s, Newsday described the theater as "reminiscent of "an earlier, gaudier page of motion pictures",[17] while The New York Times called it "a fading memory of what movie houses were all about in the days when they reflected the splendor that was Hollywood".

[26] Newsday wrote that the theater's architecture "created the impression of a Spanish plaza, complete with a starlit ceiling, niches and exotic decoration".

[108] The architect and writer Robert A. M. Stern regarded the Valencia as one of Eberson's "more modest designs", especially as compared with Loew's Paradise and 72nd Street theaters.