by KYW’s Mike Dunn

With the Boyd Theater in Center City going on the auction block this week, a City Councilman wants to give preservationists more ammunition in their bid to save it.

City Councilman Bill Green has introduced a measure that would give the city's Historical Commission a power it does not currently have:

"This bill would give the Historical Commission the authority to declare the interior of buildings that were designed to be open to the public as historically significant, so that they can be preserved."

And Green believes with this new power in hand, the Commission could decide the interior of the embattled Boyd Theater is significant and thus protected.

The owners of what was also known as the SamEric Theater are putting the building on the auction block Wednesday and Green hopes this measure could be enacted in time to protect it when it gets new owners.