RKO Keith's Theater

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1891.

From the record

“The RKO Keith's Theater was an RKO Pictures movie theater at 135-35 Northern Boulevard in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens in New York City. While the RKO Keith's had a plain three-story facade, its interior was elaborately designed in a Spanish Baroque Revival style.”
Wikipedia article RKO Keith's Theater (Flushing, Queens), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 108 National Register listings published here for Queens County · listed in 1982 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 129-143 Northern Blvd., New York, 11354
When was it listed? October 1982
Category. building
Borough. Queens
Architectural style. Spanish Colonial Revival architecture
Architect. Thomas W. Lamb
National Register reference number. 82001260 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1891 to 1995

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 104 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering RKO Keith's Theater, surveyed 1995

Topographic sheet covering RKO Keith's Theater, surveyed 1891

Fires near this property

2,214 since 2000

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 2,214 fires within 5 miles of RKO Keith's Theater between 2000 and 2020, burning about 518 acres in total. 143 started naturally. 103 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	1584
Natural	143
Smoking	136
Arson/incendiarism	103
Equipment and vehicle use	64
Misuse of fire by a minor	62
Recreation and ceremony	55
Debris and open burning	53
Power generation/transmission/distribution	9
Railroad operations and maintenance	5

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2016	Recreation and ceremony	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	N/A
9 September 2015	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2005	Smoking	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
9 September 2004	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	not named
8 September 2020	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Fire Department of New York	NA

Every fire recorded in Queens County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of RKO Keith's Theater: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Gypsum-Anhydrite. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	National Gypsum/ Bronx Mill	Gypsum-Anhydrite	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Queens County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1891 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1897 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1898 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500
1900 USGS Harlem quadrangle1:62500 - 16 printings
1947 USGS Flushing quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1954 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1955 USGS Flushing quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1957 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1958 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1960 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1966 USGS Flushing quadrangle1:24000 - 4 printings
1969 USGS New York quadrangle1:250000
1984 USGS Long Island West quadrangle1:100000 - 2 printings
1995 USGS Flushing quadrangle1:24000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Old Quaker Meetinghouse	0.1 miles	1967
Flushing Town Hall	0.1 miles	1972
Flushing Armory	0.2 miles	1995
St. George's Church	0.2 miles	2008
Flushing High School	0.3 miles	1992
Main Street Subway Station (Dual System IRT)	0.3 miles	2004

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 82001260 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Queens County	All 108 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.