Enormous murals that once adorned South Street theater need a new home — fast

Are you on the hunt for some new artwork, free of charge? Do you have room for, say, a 16-by-8-foot mural or two? Do you want to preserve a bygone era of jazz and barbecue-perfumed Philadelphia history?

Good news.

For the last five years, the gargantuan murals that once adorned the facade of South Street’s historic Royal Theater have been gathering dust at OCF Realty’s storage space on Washington Avenue, and developer Ori Feibush said the clock is ticking.

Feisbush posted a plea on Facebook this week, once again seeking a permanent caretaker for the massive panels. It’s become a semiannual tradition since Feibush acquired the storied theater for redevelopment; it now houses restaurant Rex at the Royal. But due to the size of the 18-year-old panels, he’s gotten no serious offers.

This time is different, though. Feibush said he has a new tenant for OCF’s storage space across from its offices on Washington Avenue, and his firm will have to move the panels in June.

“We won’t throw them in the trash, but it’s been a bit frustrating,” Feibush said. “We’ve transported them a couple times over the last five years, and we have yet to find them a home.”

The murals capture a faded era of Black cultural life along South Street, just west of Broad. But they’re also personal for Brandon Washington, who’s hoping someone will step up before the storage situation becomes dire.

Washington’s father — Ron Washington, the late smoked meat man behind the long-gone Ron’s Ribs — is one of the larger-than-life personalities depicted on the indigo-tinted paintings.

“My dad grew up in the neighborhood,” he said. “He was a leader in the community and he just wanted to get stuff done.”

Ron Washington bought the property that once housed another Black-owned barbecue called Bea Bea’s at 1627 South St. After being denied a loan to turn it into apartments, he decided to keep the storefront barbecue business alive, opening up Ron’s Ribs in 1984.

“I lived in that place, and I started working there as soon as I could talk,” his son said.

The elder Washington died in 2002, and his brother ran the popular eatery until it closed in 2010. During the pandemic, Brandon brought his father’s barbecue sauce recipe back to life and began marketing it on social media, alongside merchandise commemorating the “South Street tradition” that was Ron’s Ribs.

He hoped the murals would carry on some of that legacy, too, instead of becoming yet another relic of the area’s past.

Built in 1919 during the segregation era, the Royal Theater served as one of the nation’s most successful movie houses for Black patrons, before evolving into a live jazz venue. But what was once called the “epicenter of African American culture” faced increasing economic pressure and ultimately closed in 1970. The long-vacant theater has been an enduring source of political scandal through several failed redevelopment plans in recent years.

During one of those redevelopment attempts, in 2005, Mural Arts came in to preserve the cultural history that flourished around the theater. On the vaulted facades, artist Eric Okdeh painted such local characters as Washington, a longtime hat shop proprietor everyone knew as “Miss Jesse,” and a menagerie of jazz icons who played on the Royal’s stage, from Fats Waller to Bessie Smith.

Redevelopment finally lurched forward in 2017. At the time, Feibush promised to preserve the murals on the facade of the new retail space.

The size of the pieces was prohibitive. Every time he posts on social media, the developer gets an initial rush of interest to save the murals. OFC recently paid to move the hulking pieces to a potential new home, only to bring them back to the storage space.

Feibush said that, one way or another, he would have to relocate the paintings next month, but emphasized he wouldn’t throw them away until they had a permanent landing.

“The post today is nearly a copy-and-paste from what I posted six months ago,” he said.

If you know someone who is interested, email OCF Realty at info@ocfrealty.com.