5467 Moran Street
Zellah Theatre, Moran Theatre, St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church, Sanctuary Detroit
The Zellah Theatre was in operation by May 1914. The first advertisement for movie showings I’ve found was in the Detroit Free Press for a showing of Lucille Love, Girl of Mystery, starring Grace Cunard on May 23rd.
In this case, the name ‘Zellah’ is Yiddish, so the owner was most likely Jewish. Although there wasn’t a huge pocket of Jewish people in Poletown, there were enough to warrant constructing a nearby cemetery (Beth Olem), which is currently inaccessible apart from two days a year due to a General Motors plant.
At some point, the Zellah Theatre changed names. I’m not certain if it closed, sold, or went through a thorough rebranding, but it was called the Moran Theatre by 1942. Advertisements from that year are frequent and have ‘Formerly Zellah’ in parentheses after each entry.
The Moran continued operations into the 1950s but, at some point, closed its doors. It would never operate as a movie theatre again.
St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church was founded in 1954 by Reverend James Edward Reed. Their original address was a house on Wabash Street, but by 1963, official church documents place them at 5467 Moran Street, the site of the former Zellah and Moran Theatres. Reverend Reed passed away in November 1981, but the congregation continued onward.
Around 2006, the church folded. The structure sat vacant for a while, eventually becoming Sanctuary Detroit, a music venue started by Maxxwell Lange of Warren. According to their site, they “had to replace 70% of the flooring, fix the ceiling, update heating, upgrade the bathroom, and many more projects.” The first show was on December 14, 2014.
The last show would come in 2016 before the venue opened its new location at 2932 Caniff in Hamtramck in 2018.
Since then, everything has been quiet at 5467 Moran Street. Many homes in the neighborhood have seen new life, but there hasn’t been significant investment in the area. Hopefully, someone will take an interest in the Zellah, and we’ll see movement here before it’s too late.
