Town Theatre
315 West Fayette Street,
Baltimore,
MD
21201
315 West Fayette Street,
Baltimore,
MD
21201
3 people
favorited this theater
Originally built in 1911 in the Beaux-Arts style, the Empire Theatre was just around the corner from the Hippodrome Theatre, and has one of the more interesting histories of downtown Baltimore theatres.
After trying and failing at burlesque and vaudeville, the 2,200-seat Empire Theatre (later Palace Theatre) switched to movies, then later switched back to burlesque, ultimately closing in 1937 when it was gutted and served as a garage for ten years. In 1946 it was rebuilt with an unusual Art Moderne style motif (designed by architects John Zink and Lucius White). The new incarnation seated 1,550, and opened again as a movie house, converting to Cinerama in 1953.
The Town Theatre ultimately closed in 1990, and for a time its future looked bleak, as the city’s new downtown revitalization plan called for the demolition of many older buildings located in the west downtown district.
However, the venue was saved when the Everyman Theatre troupe, a successful regional theatre, bought the building for $1, with an eye to making it their new home. Everyman is currently (in 2010) raising funds to do a complete remodeling. The interior is in bad shape, and plans are to gut the building and construct a black box theatre within the shell, also providing appropriate rehearsal space. A substantial portion of the funds are raised, and plans are to reopen the theatre in 2011.
Contributed by
Thomas Paul, David A. Litterer
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Recent comments (view all 31 comments)
It could be because the 1985 photo is darker, but the building looked better in 1979.
Your pic still looks really great, much better than the 1985 photo, I guess 8 years can make a big difference too.
Baltimore’s Cinerama exhibition history posted here.
The Town is being converted into the new home for Everyman Theatre, with opening scheduled for 2011. This is great news!
Several weeks ago I got a very brief look at the lobby and auditorium. As you’d expect, the place is a mess. The ground-floor projection booth was open – two lamphouses still stood there, 19 years after the last picture was shown.
There is a photo of the Town in this June 1952 issue of Boxoffice magazine:
http://tinyurl.com/yafzbvr
“Skirts Ahoy” Released on May 28, 1952.
Here is a 1986 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yho33gn
The Everyman Theater has up[dates regarding the renovations
http://www.everymantheatre.org/newtheater.html
Thnaks for the ‘86 photo ken, but I really have to wonder how they defined “newly renovated”.
I thought I knew most of Esther’s films but dont recall
“Skirts Ahoy”. LOL With a title like that Id hunt it down to watch with or without Esther.
“She’s Gotta Have It” and “Daughter of Dracula.”
Oh, those funky J-F double-bills!!
To the person who wrote in 2004 about Cinerama doing badly in Baltimore. Baltimore got on the bandwagon too late. 4 years too late. By the time it got to Baltimore it had already been ion D>C> & Philly many years before. We had a similiar experience here in the Boston area because it took a few years for Providence(50 miles) and Hartford(100 miles) to get Cinerama(3 strip). It did well in both venues but not as long as Boston. We then got Cinerama(70mm) in Worcester(45miles) and in Lawrence(35 miles). Did not do well. Boston did very well because it was in the big city, larger theatre and opened here 1st. Boston was the 5th Cinerama theatre(3 strip). Lasted from 1953 until the early seventies.