Not Greene ave, I meant near Bleecker st. Anyway, the address for Myrtle-Knickerbocker-Bleecker would be more like 1450 Myrtle or something close to it.
If the Rivoli was located at Knickerbocker and Myrtle near Greene ave, then the address on Cinematour is either wrong, or there was another theater at 1374 Myrtle ave.
I just checked 1374 Myrtle ave on a map and that address appears to be on Myrtle ave between Harmon and Himrod st. It also appears to be closer to Wilson ave than it is to Knickerbocker ave. Could the address given on Cinematour be incorrect?
Bway…..Maybe your on to something with the Rivoli. Cinematour lists the Rivoli at 1374 Myrtle Ave. Could it be that at one time it was known as the Knickerbocker theater, or could it be that people just called it the Knickerbocker when in reality it was the Rivoli.
I went to the Irving theater section and read the messages. I should have done that sooner. As for the Knickerbocker theater, if I had only read one person’s account of it, I would say that they made a mistake or that their memory of it was wrong. I have read at least 5 stories where people refer to the Knickerbocker theater being on Myrtle near Knickerbocker. It is possible that they are confusing it with the Irving theater and that is what I’m trying to find out.
This site should allow the person that posted a message to have the ability to edit or delete a message that he/she posted. If we could do that, we could do our own “housekeeping” when our research for a particular theater was finished.
This theater was located on the Myrtle-Irving-Linden triangle? I can tell you that there was no theater there in the mid fifties so it must have closed earlier than that. At one time there was a Texaco gas station on that site. There was also a Mobil station across the street from there on Myrtle and Grove st.
I’m not going to dig through all those messages, that’s why I moved over to this section. So, the Mozart and Irving theater are one in the same and already is listed here. Since all the stories I have read about the Knickerbocker say that it was located on Myrtle “near” Knickerbocker ave, could the Knickerbocker also be the Mozart/Irving theater?
I think that we have already figured out that the Rige theater and the Grove theater and maybe even the Wilson theater are one in the same since the Rige and Grove theaters had the same address of 474 Wilson Avenue in Bushwick. Does anyone have anymore info on this one?
Then there is the mystery of the Mozart/Knickerbocker theater to solve.
In that same article, it mentions a company called Ring-Gibson that built many houses around the Freshpond road area. In August 1913, the Ring-Gibson Company placed a large order with the Evergreen Steam Stone Works for cut lime, brown and blue stone.
I might have been told about that A&P fire, I don’t really remember. In April of 1968 I wasn’t in Ridgewood or NY. An uncle of mine “invited” me to do some traveling starting that year. You might have heard of him, his name is Uncle Sam and he wanted ME!
“Evergreen Steam Stone Works was located at Myrtle Avenue and Decatur Street in Ridgewood. In later years the Glenwood Theater was located on the same site and today the U.S. Post Office is there”.
The 25 foot lot sounds right because I read that the early Mathews homes were 25 feet wide. Although, his later homes were increased to 27 and a half feet wide. I don’t know the reason for the increase.
Do you think that the Van Cortlandt Airdrome should have its own page or just leave it combined with the Evergreen? The numbering system is confusing, at least on Seneca ave it is. I’ll give you an example: The Majestic theater’s address was 494 Seneca. It was a corner building. If you cross Greene ave, the first house you come to is 504 Seneca ave. You would think that there were four buildings missing there somehow. And yet, there is no room for those four missing buildings. I could never understand that, so the numbering on the Evergreen doesn’t really surprise me.
It is interesting isn’t it. Besides Covert being changed to Seneca, I read that Cypress ave was called Cypress Hills st. at the turn of the century. I know that there is still a Cypress Hills st, but ALL of Cypress ave was called Cypress ave at one time. All of those “main roads” like Cypress were supposed to be called Avenues such as Seneca, Cypress, St. Nicholas, Wyckoff, Irving, Knickerbocker, Wilson etc. The intersecting streets were supposed to be streets or road or anything but avenues. It didn’t work because you still have Dekalb ave, Greene ave, Gates ave, etc. They were all supposed to be called streets.
I think that Bway entered the Evergreen theater. The Van Cortlandt Airdrome could be entered as an open air theater and use the address of the Flowerama. So far I haven’t found a way to convert the address. It could be added later though.
I came across this when I was searching for a way to convert the address:
“Queens 1911 — Borough topographical engineers devised comprehensive street-naming and house-numbering plan for entire borough, using the “Philadelphia system” of numbered streets. Public resistance slowed implementation. System first applied to Richmond Hill in 1915. Ninety percent borough compliance by 1932".
Some of this is kind of strange to me also. I would have thought that after the theater was built, the Airdrome would have been closed. Yet the article claims that in 1921 both the Evergreen Theater and Evergreen Airdrome were sold implying that the Airdrome was still there.
Adding 1,500 seats to that theater has been the main reason that I am so curious about how much property these two buildings occupied.
There will always be some things that we will never know the full answer to when it comes to theater’s like these. At least we know that the theater did exist and were it was located. Maybe we should accept the 1200 seating capacity and let it go at that.
If the Evergreen Airdrome was built in 1911, it should have been listed as Covert ave since the name wasn’t changed to Seneca ave until 1912. The Evergreen theater was built after the name change but that should not affect its address. That article say’s that in 1915 they expanded the theater by 1,500 seats. I wonder how many seats it had to begin with. Let’s say that it had 500, add in 1,500 seats and you have a good size theater. That’s why I was curious if both theater’s occupied the whole block.
I know what you mean about the old numbering system for the Van Cortlandt Airdrome. The address would probably have been somewhere in the 1600 number range. I have no idea if there is a way to “convert” the address from new to old, but I will check into it. Thanks for adding the Evergreen.
Bway…..Sorry, I didn’t hit the refresh button on my browser so I didn’t see your post ahead of mine. I agree with you that Van Cortland Airdrome is where the Flowerama is. We need an address on that.
Peter….Thanks for reminding me what was located on that block. Is it possible that the two Evergreen theater’s occupied the entire block at one time? After they were sold, maybe the other buildings were put up. I’m only asking this because I’m trying to get an idea of how large these two theater’s were. According to the article, the Airdrome was already there and the Evergreen theater was added later.
I’m trying to “picture” where the Evergreen was located. Since it has an even address (926) it would be on the same side of Seneca ave as the Majestic was. If you were heading towards Myrtle ave from the site of the old Majestic theater, the Evergreen should be on the other side of Myrtle. That would place it somewhere between Hancock st and Weirfield st. Peter or Bway could be more accurate on this than me.
I think there was a Chase bank on the corner of Hancock, Myrtle and Seneca and next to the bank was a supermarket. Before the supermart was there, it was a toy store or juvenile store called Pachmans or something like that. That should be where the Evergreen was located.
The Van Cortlandt Airdrome should have been located at 71st and Myrtle which is close to Forrest ave.
Warren…..That is great info that you found. I had posted about the Evergreen somewhere else on this site. I will copy and paste it here to refresh everyone’s memory:
In 1921, Joseph Hartman and his son-in-law, Phoebus Kaplan, built a row of brick store fronts with a dwelling on the upper level, on Myrtle Avenue and Anthon Avenue (60th Street). In 1911, they had built and operated an open air movie theatre at what is now Seneca Avenue near Myrtle Avenue, called the Evergreen Airdrome and also at the same time, the Van Cortlandt Airdrome on the northeast corner of Myrtle Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue (71st Avenue). In 1913, they built the Evergreen Theatre adjacent to the Evergreen Airdrome. In 1915, they expanded the Evergreen Theatre by 1,500 seats. By 1920, the Van Cortlandt Airdrome was closed. In 1921, possibly to take advantage of the tax exempt legislation and to fund their building the row of store fronts as noted above, they sold the Evergreen Theatre and Evergreen Airdrome.
Maybe we can find more out about the Van Cortlandt Airdrome also.
Warren….Thanks for posting the seating capacity of the Starr theater.
Bway……I added the Starr to this website. I’ll leave the Luxor theater for Peter to enter. I agree with you that all we really need is a name and address to enter a theater.
I’ll hold off on the Ridgewood Folly until I can find a location or address for it. Another theater that we talked about was the Evergreen on Seneca and Myrtle. Did anyone find anymore info on that one? Then there is still the mystery of the Knickerbocker/Grove theater to solve.
Not Greene ave, I meant near Bleecker st. Anyway, the address for Myrtle-Knickerbocker-Bleecker would be more like 1450 Myrtle or something close to it.
If the Rivoli was located at Knickerbocker and Myrtle near Greene ave, then the address on Cinematour is either wrong, or there was another theater at 1374 Myrtle ave.
http://www.cinematour.com/results.php
I just checked 1374 Myrtle ave on a map and that address appears to be on Myrtle ave between Harmon and Himrod st. It also appears to be closer to Wilson ave than it is to Knickerbocker ave. Could the address given on Cinematour be incorrect?
Bway…..Maybe your on to something with the Rivoli. Cinematour lists the Rivoli at 1374 Myrtle Ave. Could it be that at one time it was known as the Knickerbocker theater, or could it be that people just called it the Knickerbocker when in reality it was the Rivoli.
I went to the Irving theater section and read the messages. I should have done that sooner. As for the Knickerbocker theater, if I had only read one person’s account of it, I would say that they made a mistake or that their memory of it was wrong. I have read at least 5 stories where people refer to the Knickerbocker theater being on Myrtle near Knickerbocker. It is possible that they are confusing it with the Irving theater and that is what I’m trying to find out.
This site should allow the person that posted a message to have the ability to edit or delete a message that he/she posted. If we could do that, we could do our own “housekeeping” when our research for a particular theater was finished.
This theater was located on the Myrtle-Irving-Linden triangle? I can tell you that there was no theater there in the mid fifties so it must have closed earlier than that. At one time there was a Texaco gas station on that site. There was also a Mobil station across the street from there on Myrtle and Grove st.
I’m not going to dig through all those messages, that’s why I moved over to this section. So, the Mozart and Irving theater are one in the same and already is listed here. Since all the stories I have read about the Knickerbocker say that it was located on Myrtle “near” Knickerbocker ave, could the Knickerbocker also be the Mozart/Irving theater?
I think that we have already figured out that the Rige theater and the Grove theater and maybe even the Wilson theater are one in the same since the Rige and Grove theaters had the same address of 474 Wilson Avenue in Bushwick. Does anyone have anymore info on this one?
Then there is the mystery of the Mozart/Knickerbocker theater to solve.
I’m moving over to the RKO Madison section for research, there are too many messages in here.
/theaters/4621/
In that same article, it mentions a company called Ring-Gibson that built many houses around the Freshpond road area. In August 1913, the Ring-Gibson Company placed a large order with the Evergreen Steam Stone Works for cut lime, brown and blue stone.
I might have been told about that A&P fire, I don’t really remember. In April of 1968 I wasn’t in Ridgewood or NY. An uncle of mine “invited” me to do some traveling starting that year. You might have heard of him, his name is Uncle Sam and he wanted ME!
Here is some trivia for you that I came across:
“Evergreen Steam Stone Works was located at Myrtle Avenue and Decatur Street in Ridgewood. In later years the Glenwood Theater was located on the same site and today the U.S. Post Office is there”.
That’s a good question, but I don’t know the answer right now. I think Peter is right, we might need a field trip soon and a camera.
The 25 foot lot sounds right because I read that the early Mathews homes were 25 feet wide. Although, his later homes were increased to 27 and a half feet wide. I don’t know the reason for the increase.
Bway….Great intro and a great follow up post!
Do you think that the Van Cortlandt Airdrome should have its own page or just leave it combined with the Evergreen? The numbering system is confusing, at least on Seneca ave it is. I’ll give you an example: The Majestic theater’s address was 494 Seneca. It was a corner building. If you cross Greene ave, the first house you come to is 504 Seneca ave. You would think that there were four buildings missing there somehow. And yet, there is no room for those four missing buildings. I could never understand that, so the numbering on the Evergreen doesn’t really surprise me.
Another typo…“ALL of Cypress ave was called Cypress Hills st at one time”.
It is interesting isn’t it. Besides Covert being changed to Seneca, I read that Cypress ave was called Cypress Hills st. at the turn of the century. I know that there is still a Cypress Hills st, but ALL of Cypress ave was called Cypress ave at one time. All of those “main roads” like Cypress were supposed to be called Avenues such as Seneca, Cypress, St. Nicholas, Wyckoff, Irving, Knickerbocker, Wilson etc. The intersecting streets were supposed to be streets or road or anything but avenues. It didn’t work because you still have Dekalb ave, Greene ave, Gates ave, etc. They were all supposed to be called streets.
I think that Bway entered the Evergreen theater. The Van Cortlandt Airdrome could be entered as an open air theater and use the address of the Flowerama. So far I haven’t found a way to convert the address. It could be added later though.
I came across this when I was searching for a way to convert the address:
“Queens 1911 — Borough topographical engineers devised comprehensive street-naming and house-numbering plan for entire borough, using the “Philadelphia system” of numbered streets. Public resistance slowed implementation. System first applied to Richmond Hill in 1915. Ninety percent borough compliance by 1932".
Some of this is kind of strange to me also. I would have thought that after the theater was built, the Airdrome would have been closed. Yet the article claims that in 1921 both the Evergreen Theater and Evergreen Airdrome were sold implying that the Airdrome was still there.
Adding 1,500 seats to that theater has been the main reason that I am so curious about how much property these two buildings occupied.
There will always be some things that we will never know the full answer to when it comes to theater’s like these. At least we know that the theater did exist and were it was located. Maybe we should accept the 1200 seating capacity and let it go at that.
If the Evergreen Airdrome was built in 1911, it should have been listed as Covert ave since the name wasn’t changed to Seneca ave until 1912. The Evergreen theater was built after the name change but that should not affect its address. That article say’s that in 1915 they expanded the theater by 1,500 seats. I wonder how many seats it had to begin with. Let’s say that it had 500, add in 1,500 seats and you have a good size theater. That’s why I was curious if both theater’s occupied the whole block.
I know what you mean about the old numbering system for the Van Cortlandt Airdrome. The address would probably have been somewhere in the 1600 number range. I have no idea if there is a way to “convert” the address from new to old, but I will check into it. Thanks for adding the Evergreen.
I found this for the Flowerama:
Flowerama, 59-35 Myrtle Avenue, Ridgewood, NY
Bway…..Sorry, I didn’t hit the refresh button on my browser so I didn’t see your post ahead of mine. I agree with you that Van Cortland Airdrome is where the Flowerama is. We need an address on that.
Peter….Thanks for reminding me what was located on that block. Is it possible that the two Evergreen theater’s occupied the entire block at one time? After they were sold, maybe the other buildings were put up. I’m only asking this because I’m trying to get an idea of how large these two theater’s were. According to the article, the Airdrome was already there and the Evergreen theater was added later.
I’m trying to “picture” where the Evergreen was located. Since it has an even address (926) it would be on the same side of Seneca ave as the Majestic was. If you were heading towards Myrtle ave from the site of the old Majestic theater, the Evergreen should be on the other side of Myrtle. That would place it somewhere between Hancock st and Weirfield st. Peter or Bway could be more accurate on this than me.
I think there was a Chase bank on the corner of Hancock, Myrtle and Seneca and next to the bank was a supermarket. Before the supermart was there, it was a toy store or juvenile store called Pachmans or something like that. That should be where the Evergreen was located.
The Van Cortlandt Airdrome should have been located at 71st and Myrtle which is close to Forrest ave.
Warren…..That is great info that you found. I had posted about the Evergreen somewhere else on this site. I will copy and paste it here to refresh everyone’s memory:
In 1921, Joseph Hartman and his son-in-law, Phoebus Kaplan, built a row of brick store fronts with a dwelling on the upper level, on Myrtle Avenue and Anthon Avenue (60th Street). In 1911, they had built and operated an open air movie theatre at what is now Seneca Avenue near Myrtle Avenue, called the Evergreen Airdrome and also at the same time, the Van Cortlandt Airdrome on the northeast corner of Myrtle Avenue and Van Cortlandt Avenue (71st Avenue). In 1913, they built the Evergreen Theatre adjacent to the Evergreen Airdrome. In 1915, they expanded the Evergreen Theatre by 1,500 seats. By 1920, the Van Cortlandt Airdrome was closed. In 1921, possibly to take advantage of the tax exempt legislation and to fund their building the row of store fronts as noted above, they sold the Evergreen Theatre and Evergreen Airdrome.
Maybe we can find more out about the Van Cortlandt Airdrome also.
I also entered the Willoughby theater on this website.
Warren….Thanks for posting the seating capacity of the Starr theater.
Bway……I added the Starr to this website. I’ll leave the Luxor theater for Peter to enter. I agree with you that all we really need is a name and address to enter a theater.
I’ll hold off on the Ridgewood Folly until I can find a location or address for it. Another theater that we talked about was the Evergreen on Seneca and Myrtle. Did anyone find anymore info on that one? Then there is still the mystery of the Knickerbocker/Grove theater to solve.