Loew’s 175th Street Theater Testimonies

Publisher: NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission Testimony

Washington Heights’ United Palace Cathedral is a landmark of the rarest stature: it is a building like no other, a masterpiece without par even among similar buildings designed by Thomas Lamb. No matter how ignorant, naïve, young or old, no matter where one comes from, no one could fail to recognize the specialness of its architecture, a design wittily described by David Dunlap as, “Byzantine-Romanesque-Indo-Hindu-Sino-Moorish-Persian-Eclectic-Rococo-Deco style.” Its appointments are all exceptional, from the lobby lanterns to the mighty Wurlitzer. The building’s history as a “Wonder Theater” is remarkable too.

Already, this is well known. But no less flamboyant than the United Palace’s saracenic splendors, no less impressive than the movie house’s distinguished history, is the life and legend of the man whose vision saved this landmark.

In 1969, Frederick Joseph Eikerenkoetter, II paid more than half a million dollars for the old Loew’s 175th Street and made it his headquarters. A controversial figure, Reverend Ike alienated some Christian traditionalists. Conversely, his message of self-determined salvation inspired abundant contributions and many imitators.

Popularizing a doctrine he named the Science of Living, Reverend Ike espoused the notion that God resides within all human-kind. He boasted, “I am the first black man in America to preach positive self-image psychology to the black masses within a church setting.”

He was not the first. The Reverend George Wilson Becton, Father Divine and Daddy Grace are but three examples from a crowded field of adherents to what some dismiss as the “gospel of greed.” What is undeniable was the degree of Reverend Ike’s success. He preached on over 1,770 radio networks and on a half-dozen TV stations. Reverend Ike’s positive, self-affirming message of personal responsibility for earthly rewards appealed to an estimated 2.5 million people across the nation. “It is not the love of money that is the root of all evil,” Rev. Ike liked to tell his followers, “It’s the lack of money. A poor man has nothing to bribe the gatekeeper with.”