The Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex is a historic building in the King-Lincoln Bronzeville neighborhood of Columbus, Ohio . It was built in 1925 as the Pythian Temple and James Pythian Theater, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places and Columbus Register of Historic Properties in 1983. The building was renovated into the King Arts Complex in 1987, and was vacated in 2019. Community leaders restored the building's use as an arts center in 2021.
6-575: The Pythian Temple was designed in the Colonial Revival architectural style by Samuel Plato , an African-American architect, and is his only work in Columbus. It was financed by the Knights of Pythias , a Black fraternal organization, and opened in 1926 and could accommodate roughly 1,000 people with a theatre, retail, offices, and lodge rooms. It quickly became the center of entertainment in
12-587: A desire to save the building. Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture . The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 , which reawakened Americans to the architectural traditions of their colonial past. Fairly small numbers of Colonial Revival homes were built c. 1880 –1910,
18-539: A period when Queen Anne-style architecture was dominant in the United States. From 1910–1930, the Colonial Revival movement was ascendant, with about 40% of U.S. homes built in the Colonial Revival style. In the immediate post-war period ( c. 1950s –early 1960s), Colonial Revival homes continued to be constructed, but in simplified form. In the present-day, many New Traditional homes draw from Colonial Revival styles. Although associated with
24-718: The architectural movement, "Colonial Revival" also refers to historic preservation , landscape architecture and garden design, and decorative arts movements that emulate or draw inspiration from colonial forms. While the dominant influences in Colonial Revival style are Georgian and Federal architecture , Colonial Revival homes also draw, to a lesser extent, from the Dutch Colonial style and post-medieval English styles. Colonial Revival homes are often eclectic in style, combining aspects from several of these previous styles. Since Colonial Revival architecture pulls structural and decorative elements from other styles, there
30-769: The neighborhood, hosting performers including Cab Calloway , Count Basie , Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Dancers . It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 25, 1983. In 1987, the temple was renovated by African-American owned architecture firm Moody Nolan to combine with Garfield Elementary School. The complex was renamed as the Martin Luther King Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex, in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The building
36-471: Was listed as one of the most endangered sites in the city, in Columbus Landmarks ' 2021 list. The King Arts Complex vacated the building in 2019, and a portion of it was listed for sale in 2020. In July 2021, the temple was entered a purchase agreement with the owners by Maroon Arts Group, a Black-led nonprofit based in the neighborhood. The group entered the agreement after the community expressed
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