Whitney Theatre
67-05 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
67-05 Fresh Pond Road,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
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Showing 26 - 45 of 45 comments
Thanks, Jim. Glad to read it, and good to connect with you here, now that I have those Xeroxed pages, from the “New York Transit Memories” book, courtesy of your good offices, and our meeting at the Ridgewood Theater this past Saturday August 25th.
Which reminds me : I should Xerox pages for myself out of Stan Fischler’s “Confessions Of A Trolley Dodger From Brooklyn” before I return it to the friend from work who so kindly lent it to me this past March 5 or 6 2007 !
Like you, I do hope that Ed, owner of Nagengast’s, signs on here and starts posting his Ridgewood Theater info and memories.
Was only able to visit Nagengast’s once last month, but I managed to turn owner Ed onto CT and the Whitney Theater, formerly located where North Fork Bank does business today. Hopefully he’ll sign up and post some of his Ridgewood theater info and memories in the future.
BklynJim :
Sorry can’t help you about owner of Nagengast’s, though I remember the place well. I think I was last there in Sept 1969 to buy my second plastic model kit of the original starship Enterprise. My wife and father were there summer 1992, to get some furniture feet, or casters, but I was not.
I think I may have seen excerpts from “An El Called Myrtle” at the “Elevated City” exhibit at the Transit Museum Store, GCT, summer 2002 or 2003. I remember the view of the Madison as the train entered Wyckoff Avenue station. The music on the soundtrack was “East side, west side, all around the town …”
No, I have not purchased the “New York Transit Memories” book. Thanks in advance for xeroxing the pages from it. Hope to see you in Ridgewood this August. If not, you can mail them to my home address, which I could provide by private e-mail.
Peter – as in PKoch – did you ever purchase the “New York Transit Memories” book? If not, I’ll xerox a few pages of Ridgewood pix for you when I visit this summer. One of them is on Fresh Pond Rd., right by the old Whitney.
Just received yet another DVD from “Subway Al” in Morris Plains, NJ, this time titled “An El Called Myrtle.” In this 32-minute slice of history, photographer Mark Boland had shot the line in sequence from Jay St. to Metropolitan Ave., end to end, in ‘69, the last year of the old wooden Q-cars. As the train pulled into the Fresh Pond Avenue station, one can clearly see the theater’s colorful brick architecture of the Whitney length-wise opposite the platform. I’m hoping that, with a bit of help from one of the Ridgewood Regulars, this shot may transfer well to CT when I get back to NY soon.
Although the front of the Madison Theatre was not visible, one could easily see its roof and water towers as the clanky old el train approached and entered the Wyckoff Avenue station.
Interesting find Lost! I always thought the building did look ‘theater-like", but of course, I have no idea if this was built to be a theater or not.
Here’s the link to the photo I took about two ago (gasp, where did those two years go):
Click here for photo of the Whitney site
It’s probably owner Hans Jr.’s son who runs the day-to-day store operations, as it’s been family-owned and run a long, long time. Last fall, went over to purchase some HO-scale RR stuff, and brought back a Model Railroader mag I’d purchased there in ‘74. (Was even an old ad of theirs in the classifieds!) When I gave it to him, the guy quipped, “Hope you’ll be back sooner than that this time…”
If you should contact him, ask him about the Whitney across the street as well as the March ‘06 Sopranos episode. You never know – he might even have taken a Camcorder to the event.
[“Film editors on strike! Slides at 11!]
If he’s the taller one, reddish hair, about 38-42 years old…
Mebbe, but Hans doesn’t ring my upstairs bell. Thx for trying and posting so quickly, LM. Unless one of the other regulars connect, I guess I’ll know for sure when I visit Nagengast’s on my next trip. This time I’ll write it down! My memory is all-too-often lost these days!
This is sooooo embarrassing, and it’s been bugging me ever since I posted the above on 6/17…
For the life of me, I cannot recall the guy’s name at Nagengast Hardware on Fresh Pond Rd.! Perhaps if someone such as PKoch, Bway, Lost Memory, EdSolero – in other words, one of the locals – called them and asked, then one of you guys could post his first name. He’s truly a font of knowledge, a walkin' talkin' history book for a relatively young guy. THX!!!
Color me flabbergasted! How many times I’ve passed by on Fresh Pond Road and even seen the upper building as evidenced in Bway’s May ‘05 photo and never dreamed that a theater had been there in the early 1900s??? Dang, my old bank at that location is gone, Niederstein’s in Middle Village is recently gone, the diner at Metropolitan Ave. is gone, the Oasis and Madison are gone, the wooden gate and Q cars of the el are gone…
pausing momentarily to dry my eye
BUT Nagengast’s Hardware is still there!!! Located diagonally across from the bank (and the old Whitney), away from the station, it has the feel of those oldtime hardware shops, so totally unlike Home Depot. The gent who runs it comes from a long line of relatives who also ran it. He’s an affable guy with a ton of Ridgewood history stored up in his mental vaults. (He filled me in last March as to what exact building on Fresh Pond and what time it was going to be blown up by the producers of “The Sopranos” for an upcoming episode.) If anyone drops in and asks him something, he’ll tell you what he knows. Neat guy. A real life local reference source…
Here’s an aerial view that shows the site of the old Whitney, next to the Fresh Pond station, and also that small minimart lot next to it that we discussed above:
View link
Robert, in reference to your comment above, that I never noticed, yes, I agree, I always looked at this building as a kid thinking it was a theater (it was Hamburg Savings at the time). I have a photo linked above also that I took last fall.
Here’s a photo I found on the web of the location of the Whitney.
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?38215
The Minimart is located on Transit Authority property, and is the site of the platforms of the original Fresh Pond Rd station, before the el was built, and the train ran on the ground. The building to the right of that is where the Whitney Theater once stood. I don’t believe that is actually the Whitney theater, it is probably a replacement building built soon after closing of the Whitney, but not sure. The building is “Theater like”, and quite old, although it may have been a bank right from the beginning (it currently is Greenpoint Bank).
There is a picture here of the back of the Whitney theatre
View link
That map thing is wrong. 67-05 Fresh Pond is between 67th Ave and 68th Ave (hense the “67-XX” address, indeed further south, and at the elevated tracks, not Metropolitan Ave. 68th Ave is right there at the tracks, so it’s mapquest that is messed up.
Right. The first building is the same address as the bus depot, and the TA property.
The first building after the “shack” is the Greenpoint Savings bank building.
Ken, I have the “Old Queens” book that Warren mentions. (not here, so I can’t check now). However, if it’s the photo I am thinking of, it is similar to photo 053 in the Ridgewood section of Queenspix.com
Warren, if you look in my photo above, there is a small space between the “theater site” and the tracks. Currently, a one story building occupies the corner parcel, and houses “Minimart”. A search on the ownership of the building found that the New York CIty Transit Authority owns the little minimart building, suggesting that what you said is absolutely correct. In fact, the minimart building is slightly under the elevated tracks.
The building that is now on the site, although does look “theater-like” was not the same building that housed the Whitney theater. The Whitney is just out of view in this photo (linked below) in a timesnwesweekly article that lostmemory sent me a few weeks ago. The building is different, but is indeed in the same location (note the “elevated tracks” were on the ground until 1914, but the tracks are just in the foreground).
View link
By the way Warren, I have updates on the Century and United Theater sites that you had asked for in their sections (you submitted those theaters), check there later when I post the info. I figured I’d tell you to check here, because you never posted in the Century section, and wouldn’t get a “someone just posted email”.
Bway
It’s funny you mention looking at the building. I did the same thing as a kid and always thought this had to have been a theatre at one time.
Below is a link to a current photo of the Whitney site. The corner building is Minimart, and is sort of under the el structure.
The current 67-03 and 67-05 were built as one structure, and I assume the the Whitney also took up both properties.
Interestingly, if I hadn’t heard that the Whitney was demolished (is that accurate, or was it just “closed in 1926?”, I would have assumed the building was a theater. This building always fascinated me since I was a kid. It is “theater-like”, but I guess it was actually built for a bank.
Click here for Photo