Renaissance Ballroom & Casino

The Renaissance Theatre Building, as it was originally named, opened January 1921. It was built and owned, until 1931, by African Americans. It was known as the "Rennie" and was an upscale reception hall. The "Renny" held prize fights, dance marathons, film screenings, concerts, and stage acts. It was also a meeting place for social clubs and political organizations in Harlem. They gathered to dance the popular dances at the time, the Charleston, Lindy Hop, and Black Bottom, to live music performed by well known jazz musicians. Jazz artists such as Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Cootie Williams, Bessie Smith, Lena Horne, Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald performed at the "Renny". In the 1920s the Renaissance Ballroom was known as a "Black Mecca". It hosted Joe Louis fights. The ballroom was on the second floor of the entertainment complex.[1][2][3][4][5]

The "Renny" was a significant entertainment center during the Harlem Renaissance, and the New Negro Movement in Harlem. When African American culture and art flourished. historically important structure helped usher in the decade-long period of African American cultural and artistic flourishing, which at the time was known as the New Negro Movement. William H. Roach[lower-alpha 1] from Antigua, Cleophus Charity and Joseph H. Sweeney from Montserrat were the founding builders of the Renaissance Complex. They were members of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).[4][6]

The African-American owned and operated firm, The Sarco Realty & Holding Company, Inc., raised the funds for the project by selling shares to the public, initially, in February 1920, at 10¢ a share. Sarco's executive directors were William H. Roach, president and general manager; Cleo Charity (1889–1964), vice-president and treasurer; Cornelius Charity, second vice-president; and Joseph Henry Sweeney (1889–1932), secretary. The other directors were John Blake, Edmund Osborne, Shervington Lee, and Edward B. Lynch. Sarco Realty and the R. Holding Company, of which Roach was also President, purchased the land. Sarco contracted Isaac A. Hopper's Sons to erect the Renaissance Theatre building, at a cost of $175,000. Sarco Realty owned and managed the building until 1931. And, Sarco Realty owned and operated the Renaissance Casino and Theatre until 1931.[7]

The Renaissance was designed by Harry Creighton Ingalls, who also designed the Henry Miller and Little Theatres in the Theater District. The design was Moorish with glazed tile and palladian windows. The complex had a ballroom, a billiard parlor, stores, and a restaurant called China House. There was a basketball team known as Harlem Rens. The theater had 900-seats and featured movies by Oscar Micheaux, the first African American to produce feature-length films. It was used by the N.A.A.C.P for an Anti-lynching movement meeting in 1923.

• Save the Renaissance Ballroom - Claude Johnson Black Fives
• Norma Miller - The Savoy Ballroom Harlem
• Foxtrot (Swing Walk) at the Savoy Ballroom
• Sugar Sullivan
• "Renaissance Theatre" at Cinema Treasures