RKO Keith's Theatre
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
135-35 Northern Boulevard,
Flushing,
NY
11354
51 people
favorited this theater
Showing 251 - 275 of 1,324 comments
Thanks all! Trust me on this, what I have posted here is only a hint of what remains to this day. There are two ways of looking at it: The level of destruction or the extent of survival. If this theatre goes down it will never be replaced by an equal even in its current condition.
I agree. SWC deserves an award for his prominent role in documenting and publicizing this theater. We have proof of the great extent of architectural details in the auditorium, lounges, & other areas, which remain by the foremost theater architect Thomas W. Lamb. Don’t believe anything about what the politicians & developer(s) say.
SWC really has done an incredible job of singlehandedly documenting the Keith’s architectural details. He deserves an award, or something.
Your photos are so beautiful and haunting. I am always looking at them. I’m so sad at what has happened to this theatre but glad we will all have beautiful documentation of the remains. I hope someday you could publish a book of all these photos. I had to leave Queens when I was 13 in the 60’s but remember this wonderful theatre. Thank you for your contribution!
Balcony details
A knowing face looks out over the East balcony:
The dollars and cents value of surviving artwork:
Gutted and fit for demolition, or is it a failure to look beyond the rubble on the floor: A face in the orchestra
Men’s lounge ceiling detail:
The problem with this and other abandoned theatres is generally the ceiling particularly since, in order to achieve the effects they installed fabric on which they painted. Obviously, that would be the first to go and, hence, all the tatter that one sees in this and other pictures. However, wall murals and structural elements abound.
Forgot to mention this section is about 6' x 4' and in the upper balcony. This detail has been zoomed in quite a bit.
East balcony mural:
Ladies Parlor Room 143
At this point there are “de-landmarked portions that are fairing better than the "landmarked” ones.
Agree with the two of you. I can see beyond the ruins of the theater. There is so much beauty there as the pictures above proves. We need a savior not a wrecking ball!!!
Exactly Jeffery:
A kick to the stomach? Yes, but to those who’ve been following this story for a while, it’s not a kick caused by seeing what has become of the auditorium, but by seeing how much of the auditorium is still intact and salvageable despite decades of deliberate destruction and neglect — and will be lost if the party line about the place being “beyond saving” is followed and its demolition is finally allowed.
That top photo showing the present condition of the auditorium is like a kick to the stomach.
A cherub under the East organ screen threatens to outlast three developers and condos ad nauseam.
You should live so long!!!!!!!!
I’ve never lived to see this palace, I used to live by it. Hearing about this place now makes me very sad, that nobody bothered to restore it. It might have been nauseating by today’s standards, but if it ever re-opens, I will definitely check it out. Favorited.
Certainly Thomas Huang wasn’t within his rights as a property owner when he vandalize his own building, despite the landmark designation that forbade him to do so. I blame the current property owner for nothing beyond his ill-advised and insensitive plans for overdeveloping the site. I blame the municipality (administrations both past and present) for just about everything else that has gone wrong with the Keiths.
And in the ideal world zoning law would be followed as opposed to excepted, property rights would apply to Willets Point, Borough Presidents would be honest, the NYC Board of Standards and Appeals would not approve variances based on fictitious claims and so on. Now is the time to right a situation that has been allowed to perpetuate for 26 years to the detriment of the community and property value; support our group on FB “Save the Flushing RKO Keith’s”.
and what the developer should do, inaddition to suing the developer who sold him the property (Boymelgreen) for false advertising.
Paradise, my belabored point is that there has never been the slightest roadblock placed by any city or community official to hinder the development of this property. The only thing that has held it up is the poor planning of the developers themselves, who have repeatedly miscalculated the market, the financial environment, and their own resources. And, of course, the greed of the original property owner, who did such damage to the property — including dumping heating oil in the basement — in an apparent effort to see to it that there would be no choice but to demolish the theatre, that he added monumental additional costs to the project. If there is indeed “a substantial amount of hostility on the part of many citizens of Flushing” toward the current owner, so what? He may legally be able to do whatever he wants in exercising his property rights, but that doesn’t mean he has a right to be loved as well! Are you suggesting he has property rights but we don’t have rights to free speech or even our own feelings of hostility? Let’s not forget that we do not have property rights in a vacuum. We have zoning laws, building regulations, and (abused and weak though they may be) landmarks preservation laws, all of which were specifically enacted in an attempt to reign in the unfettered exercise of property rights without any regard for others. Without such laws, you don’t have a city; you have chaos. Or Queens.
The fact that an agency like the FAA (no offense to them but they are not known for historic preservation) basically stalled the possible destructive reuse of the Keith’s astounds me. LPC should have realized what we, the City of New York, were about to lose. It was something that should have been done years ago. Perhaps it is a ruin, perhaps it is un-salvageable, I do not know. However, is not the Roman Forum a ruin? Should it have been covered up and re-purposed into a condo? Instead, the Italian Government uncovered it as a reminder of what was once upon a time. We have too many “used to be’s” in this town. This is where the Roxy Theatre used to be, this is were Lindy’s used to be, this is where the Vanderbilt mansion used to be. This is where Pennsylvania Station used to be. As a New York City tour guide I am constantly pointing out the “used to be’s” and I always praise the efforts of LPC over the years. However, there will come a point when New York will lose too much, more of our historic structures will disappear and we will lose what separates this city from the rest of this country – it’s character. “We will be judged not by what we have built, but by what we have destroyed.
Speaking of density: