Ambassador Theatre
4604 Liberty Heights Avenue,
Baltimore,
MD
21207
4604 Liberty Heights Avenue,
Baltimore,
MD
21207
3 people
favorited this theater
Northwest Baltimore has several of the more interesting movie houses, but it’s the Ambassador Theatre which is perhaps the most interesting to see. The Art Deco style theatre commands the block, and while it hasn’t been a movie theatre since 1968, it still shines in the grace it once had.
The Ambassador Theatre is the sister theatre of the famous Senator Theatre, and both were the work of architect John J. Zink. The Ambassador Theatre was somewhat larger and more ornate.
The Ambassador Theatre has in recent years, been used as a church, a beauty school and a church again. The theatre was opened on September 18, 1935 with Marion Davies in “Page Miss Glory”, and it’s opening helped shut down the Gwynn Theatre across the street. The Ambassador Theatre is a real gem of a building, and its exterior has survived the years quite well.
One of the outstanding features about the Ambassador Theatre is its vertical sign, which dominates Liberty Heights Avenue.
Contributed by
Charles Van Bibber
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Recent comments (view all 38 comments)
Thanks. That link works fine. One of the comments above mentions that this theater opened in 1935, so it is possible that no organ was ever installed in this theater.
Not only possible, probable. They never come out without leaving SOME evidence of having been there. I could find none.
The Ambassador is still standing and still pretty much boarded up.
I remember sitting in the Ambassador with my date some time in 1961-62 and my date complained about her arm getting wet. I told her she was probably imagining it, but a few minutes later I felt a drip, too.
A few minutes later we changed seats and it probably wasn’t more than 60 seconds later that the ceiling collapsed, sending plater, wood and thousands of gallons of water right where we had been sitting!
Turned out that the water cooling tower on the roof had collapsed and caused the deluge.
But it was a beautiful building and is still there, although the plans for renovation have collapsed, too.
As of this writing (April 3, 2009) the Senator theater is about to be foreclosed on and we’re not sure whether it will be saved.
1985 photo of the Ambassador Theatre.
View link
Here are two more 1985 photos:
Photo1
Photo2
Goes under the gavel in about 20 minutes… Hoping beyond hope (as I am for The Senator – auction 6 days away) that some theatre-friendly entity picks this up.
View link
Sadly, no one even showed up for this auction. I live less than a mile from the Ambassador…while the surrounding neighborhood isn’t bad, the immediate area of the theatre is rather shabby. The former building of the Gwynn, across the street, has a collapsed roof. There’s also a long-closed Super Pride market.
An article about the Durkee circuit’s new Ambassador Theatre appeared in Boxoffice of December 14, 1935. The only photographs in the article depict the front and the projection booth, but there is considerable description.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yks5hfy