Eastown Theatre

8041 Harper Avenue,
Detroit, MI 48213

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Showing 1 - 25 of 46 comments

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on November 19, 2015 at 9:14 pm

Demolition to begin today.

http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/11/19/city-of-detroit-to-demolish-once-venerable-eastown-theatre-as-early-as-today/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork

rivest266
rivest266 on November 5, 2015 at 3:57 am

October 1st, 1931 grand opening ad in photo section.

Bway
Bway on July 16, 2015 at 4:53 pm

Wow, so sad to see!

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on June 20, 2015 at 1:19 pm

News report after collapse:

http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/dangerous-conditions-at-eastown-theatre

Apparently it was due to illegal scrappers.

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on June 20, 2015 at 1:16 pm

So much for that:

http://www.adamjacobsphotography.com/blog/detroits-east-town-theatre

But then, realistically it was probably done for years ago.

mlepley
mlepley on June 13, 2015 at 8:10 pm

Roof has collapsed!

DavidZornig
DavidZornig on December 13, 2014 at 4:19 am

This copy & paste link has a list of the Eastown concerts by year and month.

http://www.motorcitymusicarchives.com/eastowncal.html

Matt Lambros
Matt Lambros on March 25, 2013 at 9:45 am

I recently photographed the Eastown. Check out the images here.

Morgan_White
Morgan_White on October 11, 2011 at 11:37 pm

Hi All. Check out the footage I shot inside the Eastown on Oct. 9th, 2011. http://www.vimeo.com/30399224

Morgan_White
Morgan_White on October 9, 2011 at 8:02 pm

Today I visited the Eastown with a friend. The theatre is wide open, and is easily accessible, though it does reside in a bit of a rough part of town. We took a chance and ventured in. Boy, what a sight! It’s in terrible shape, but has a very interesting aura to it. You can feel the space, and the people who went to it. I filmed a bunch of footage on my DSLR, and will cut together a piece to show.

MiltonSmith
MiltonSmith on November 22, 2010 at 6:51 pm

Doesn’t look like there is anything there worth saving, unfortunately, its a gutted-out trash heap…

Life's Too Short
Life's Too Short on November 22, 2010 at 1:56 pm

Flickr photos. The future does not look bright:

View link

shadowsandrust
shadowsandrust on November 20, 2010 at 10:48 am

I was fortunate enough to get to see the Eastown in Spring, 2009. Unfortunately I only got a few good pictures, have left my tripod in the car. In front of the stage were several filthy mattresses, used by the local junkies when they shot up. There were rooms in the basement I would have liked to have seen, but an ignored broken pipe was dumping gallons of water down there and it was already several feet deep.

Climbing the stairs backstage, we found the dressing room, costumes still hanging and some old props, all covered in mildew and mold. Inside the projectionist booth there were still bits of spliced film on the floor. The ornate decorations were crumbling, much of the plaster damaged by water, part of the ceiling in the upper balcony had caved in, and it was obvious that it was not long for the world. The pictures I did get can be seen here: View link

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on October 11, 2010 at 10:56 pm

Great shot, SN. However, your picture of the auditorium of the United Artists brought tears to my eyes.

sdoerr
sdoerr on October 11, 2010 at 10:02 pm

I was the photographer for that shot (as well as the entire book)

The Eastown is quite beautiful and definitely restorable (but sadly the neighborhood dooms it)

The apartment section is what burned in the fire and thanks to great building practices when it was built, the fire wall stopped any damage from occurring to the theater section.

CSWalczak
CSWalczak on October 9, 2010 at 3:26 pm

A picture from “Lost Detroit: Stories Behind the Motor City’s Majestic Ruins” by Dan Austin: View link

DonFoshey
DonFoshey on August 13, 2010 at 1:35 pm

It is sad, and Detroit has more than it’s share of problems, but the other side of the coin is that the economic doldrums that have hit my home town have also meant that a lot of elegant old buildings are here, unlike cities that have torn down and replaced their architectural history over and over.
These buildings are there, and are structurally sound for the most part. But they need some sort of economic catalyst to save them. Some sort of financially viable way to put them back to use. The Eastown is too far away from anything that’s near commercial redevelopment (or even on the radar for redevelopment) for it to have found a new existence, and the capital to refurbish and repurpose it.

MiltonSmith
MiltonSmith on August 12, 2010 at 7:50 pm

It sounds and looks like that theatre was gone YEARS ago, sadly. Then again, from what I hear, that’s the general state of Detroit.

TLSLOEWS
TLSLOEWS on August 12, 2010 at 1:11 pm

Another one gone that too bad.

steelbeard1
steelbeard1 on August 10, 2010 at 5:30 pm

The Eastown is almost gone as much of it was destroyed by fire yesterday. Pictures of the aftermath are at http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=4634 Expect the entire building to be torn down.

Mike Rogers
Mike Rogers on July 31, 2010 at 7:12 am

Isn’t most all of “Detroit fallen down”.

kencmcintyre
kencmcintyre on January 21, 2010 at 8:51 pm

Here is a photo of uncertain vintage:
http://tinyurl.com/ybjhxjr

billtribula
billtribula on January 21, 2010 at 8:27 pm

It is very sad to see how this part of Detroit has fallen down. I grew up in this area and it was a thriving community then, now it looks like a war zone. Most of the landmarks that i knew are gone, i remember that on saturdays all the kids in the neighborhood headed to Harper and VanDyke to the movies either the Eastown or the VanDyke, which was a small theater just around the corner from the Eastown. The Eastown would show the newer movies and the VanDyke the older horror movies,and the VanDykes admission was 11cents, Eastown 25 cents. Does anybody else remember those days.