The beautiful Jersey Theatre was the only one of the five Loew's "Wonder Theatres" not located within the corporate limits of New York City, but rather just across the Hudson at Journal Square in Jersey City. It opened in the same month as two of its sister theatres, the Paradise in the Bronx and the Kings in Brooklyn, an indication of the efficiency of Loew's top management and their various contractors.

Architecturally, the Jersey is a bit anomalous. While it is not unusual to find Rapp theatres that look like other Rapp theatres, it is a surprise to find an auditorium that closely resembles the later work of Thomas Lamb, particularly the Midland, Kansas City (1927) and the Fox, San Francisco. The lobby, however, is unmistakably Rapp & Rapp.

The Jersey had the normal sort of life, playing first-run product for over five decades. In 1974 the theatre was triplexed with the construction of two small auditoriums beneath the balcony. This added a dozen years to the Jersey's economic life, but only that many: it closed in August 1986. Demolition seemed imminent several times, but determined local action staved it off, and in 1993 the city purchased the building for the paltry sum of $325,000.

While some public funds have been made available for restoration, much of the work is being done by a volunteer crew organized as "Friends of the Loew's." The Friends also maintain a fine web site at, with many pictures, some historical data and ongoing updates on the restoration: http://www.loewsjersey.org/

Note the small size of the movie screen. In large theatres of the day, the screen size was limited by the intensity of the projection lamps which were not then as powerful as they would become later.

The five so-called "Wonder Mortons" (Wonder Organ was actually a Kilgen sales line) were the last big projects completed by the builder before production ceased in April 1929. They are all of Morton's late "boomer" type (of which most were built for Loew's) with the manual chests mostly on 15-inch pressure and the pedal on 20 inches. The Jersey's organ was removed at the time of the triplexing and now plays in Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara, California. Fortunately the Garden State Theatre Organ Society was able to find and acquire an identical organ from the Paradise Theatre in the Bronx. It has been on site and under restoration since 1997.