Majestic Theater
494 Seneca Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
494 Seneca Avenue,
Ridgewood,
NY
11385
1 person
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 107 comments found
I’m sure that some of this seems trivial to some people, but I have learned that researching the surrounding buildings will give you more “clues” to go on when your researching the theater itself. If I was a detective, I would be more like Peter Falk as Columbo. I might look awkward but in the end I will get my man, oops I mean theater!
And inquiring minds WILL know, so long as they keep inquiring !
This man named Robert Adair keeps appearing during my real estate searches. He registered the lot that the Majestic was built on in 1868. Now I come across the next block starting with 502 Seneca ave, and the same man registered that lot and the lots that follow on that block in May, 1889. It seems like most of the land was owned by a few individuals. Another bit of trivia: I could never figure out where 502 Seneca ave was located since the first home after the Majestic was 504 Seneca. Well, it turns out that 502 Seneca is the small one car garages on the corner of Seneca and Greene. Even though the entrances to these garages are on Greene ave, the address is listed as Seneca ave. Inquiring minds want to know!
Thats a good question. Maybe “lower” Ridgewood around Wyckoff ave was called East Williamsburg and up further it was called Newtown. The document I read listed that area as Newtown. Unless the Queens clerk was located in Newtown and by mistake they listed Ridgewood as Newtown. I’m not really sure. The thing that I’m really concerned with right now is why I can’t find an owner listed for the Majestic.
Thanks, lostmemory, for the interesting details. But I thought Ridgewood was first known as East Williamsburgh, and that Elmhurst was first known as Newtown. The Grand Avenue stop on the local Queens Blvd. subway is still sub-titled “Newtown”.
Here is more of what I discovered on the Majestic. In Oct. 1955 the building’s owner was listed as Lenroc Realty Corp. located on Seneca ave. The lienholder is listed as Hamburg Savings bank. The next document shows the same Lenroc Realty selling the property to Seneca Chapels Ltd. in 1964. So, this building stood empty for about 9 years until the funeral home opened in 1964. Some of these documents are difficult to read especially the hand written portions of them. What I cannot find is, who did Lenroc Realty buy the property from in 1955.
I found a document that explains who first owned the lot that the Majestic theater was built on. In 1868, a man named Robert Adair filed with the clerk of Queens county a property that belonged to him located at Seneca ave and Greene ave. The property was surveyed by J.L. Nostrand. It is listed as lot #101. For you history buffs, Greene ave was called Greene st and Seneca ave was called Covert ave in 1868. And Ridgewood was known as Newtown.
At least this gives me a starting point to locate who owned the Majestic.
I finally found some info on this theater. I found real estate records for it. The lot size is 50ft X 100ft (double width lot). The Majestic theater (now Seneca Chapels) was built in 1931. Since it is a double lot, its original address was 494-496 Seneca Ave. It uses 494 as its current address. Since I know that this theater closed in the mid-fifties, it only had a life span of approx. 25 years.
If Sally knows the name of the company that built these theater’s I guess that you could ask them. I would like to know if there is a place to search real estate records for older commercial buildings like these. An online search would be great.
Is it possible to contact the firm (or its descendent, if it has one ?) that designed and built both theaters, to ask them this question ?
I have a picture of the Wyckoff theater from the year that it opened in 1915. It is similar in size to the Majestic theater. After looking at the picture, I noticed that the Wyckoff had large windows on the side of the building (Bleecker st). I remember that the Majestic had no windows on the side. Not one. It did have two large windows at the rear of the building with bars across them. Could the Majestic have had some type of ventilation system to exhaust the heat from the building? Or did it close down during the summer months? Another mystery to solve.
I checked the Wyckoff theater section and the Wyckoff opened in 1915 so your saying that the Majestic opened in 1916? Both of these theater’s are similar in size. 550 seats for the Wyxkoff vs 600 seats for the Majestic. Would you know if they were both owned by the same person or company?
The Majestic opened one year after the Wyckoff theatre and were constructed by the same firm
The B38 bus followed in the footsteps of the trolley that preceeded it. The route was identical for both trolley and bus.
Yes, lostmemory I remember that there were two B-38 buses, one continuing on Seneca and the other turning northeast to Grandview.
I remember riding another B-38 from downtown Bklyn to Ridgewood in mid-April 1976 and the ride ending at Broadway and DeKalb Avenue in Bushwick. I had a little walk home to Ridgewood from there also.
I have a question. Is there a way to edit the info at the top of the page for this theater? I want to enter the seating capacity of 600 that Warren found in his book.
While doing research for the Majestic, I have come across info on other theaters from Ridgewood like the Wyckoff and Partheon, I post that info in the appropriate place. As an example, I posted the dates those theaters opened and who owned them at the time. I think that the people that entered those theaters should take that info and add it to the intro at the top also if that’s possible.
One other bit of information that I picked up is this. Seneca Ave was called Covert Ave until approx. 1912. Covert Ave was listed as Ridgewood, Brooklyn because Ridgewood and Glendale were serviced by the post office in Brooklyn, and the post office required the wording “Brooklyn, NY†in mailing addresses for Ridgewood and Glendale.
Another comment that I received about the Majestic.
“…..most of the time we went to the Parthenon since it was cheaper than the Ridgewood or Madison theaters. Occasionally, we went to the Majestic on the corner of Greene and Seneca avenues. The Parthenon charged nine cents for children under 12. On Saturdays, the Majestic would show a double feature, usually westerns, and then 10 cartoons. Upon leaving they gave you a comic book.
Peter…….Do you remember that there were two B-38 buses? They both turned right from Dekalb ave onto Seneca ave and headed east. One of them, the B-38 Ridgewood, continued on Seneca ave past the Majestic theater heading towards Myrtle ave. The other, the B-38 Grandview, turned left on Stanhope st (which is two blocks east of Dekalb) and went north a few blocks towards Grover Cleveland Park by Grandview ave. It turned around and headed back to Brooklyn from there. I always wondered why they had the same number. This may seem trivial to some people, but if you lived close to Myrtle ave and took the Grandview bus by mistake, you had a nice walk in store for yourself.
lostmemory, probably Ft. Greene Place. You would know better than me.
I think DeKalb changes from one to two way at Bushwick Avenue, based on your and my experience of the B-38 bus, and because it jogs slightly at Bushwick Avenue.
Incidentally, there’s another great old theater near there, at DeKalb Avenue and Broadway, the Casino, formerly the DeKalb, at 1153-55 DeKalb Avenue, for which there is a page on this site.
Yes, times have certainly changed, and not for the better, regarding children going alone to movie theaters.
Peter…..Was that Greene Pl or Fort Greene Pl? The high school was right across the street from Ft Greene Park. Speaking of Dekalb ave, when I rode the B-38 to school, Dekalb ave became a one way st heading south. Was it Bushwick ave where it changed from a one way to a two way street? Coming home from school, the bus went north on Lafayette until it reached Bushwick ave or whatever street it was then it proceeded to Dekalb and went north.
Thats pretty sick about that HIV stuff in a theater. Whatever condition the Majestic might have been in, the parents felt secure enough to let their kids go there alone. Times sure have changed!
lostmemory, I know what you mean. Ridgewood literally often slips through the “crack” between Brooklyn and Queens in terms of being covered in books, and is often not mentioned in books about either borough. Shame.
BTW, last night I was browsing through “Confessions Of A Brooklyn Trolley Dodger” by Stan Fischler on the way home, and it had a chapter on the DeKalb Line, and a photo of the DeKalb trolley at Brooklyn Tech, at DeKalb Avenue and Greene Place.
Warren, as undesirable as a crotchful of lice may be, it’s still not as bad as a stunt recently pulled by some sicko in some theaters, putting HIV-bearing needles on theater seats, with notes saying :
“Congratulations. You are now HIV positive.”
Peter…..I’ve looked for books on the building of NY. Most of the books that I’ve seen, cover Manhattan. There were a few about Brooklyn with no mention of Ridgewood and I believe there was one about Queens with no mention of Ridgewood either.
Warren….I really don’t know what these people meant by “dumps”. Was it a poor sanitary condition? Could it be peeling paint and light fixtures that were broken or something on that order. With all the food that these kids claimed they threw on the floor, you would expect this theater to be infested with bugs or rodents. Not one of these people has mention a problem like that. If I was in a theater and a rat jumped on me, I would never forget it. I think the building was kept reasonably clean. I would tend to believe that it was more of an appearance problem.
“Dumps” seems a polite synonym for “Itch,” which was the usual word for rundown theatres with lax sanitary conditions. In some, you could actually be infected with lice if you sat in a seat just vacated by a carrier.
Thanks, lostmemory. Much of the brick housing in Ridgewood was built near the end of World War I, 1918, so those tracks, which must have been sidings, or, as you prefer, job sites, off the LIRR Bushwick Branch, were at least a few years older. I will leave the finding of the exact date to more knowledgable railroad buffs than myself.
It would be easier if there were a book about this titled, “The Building Of Ridgewood”, or something similar.