Ambassador Theatre
4604 Liberty Heights Avenue,
Baltimore,
MD
21207
4604 Liberty Heights Avenue,
Baltimore,
MD
21207
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 37 comments
Wow. That’s only $19,900 less than the asking price. So perhaps they just want to break even, in the hopes a developer will bring it back.
The Baltimore Business Journal has an article only avail to subscribers dated Jan 19 of this year, with headline “City pumps $550k into dilapidated Ambassador Theater to save it”
Apparently still standing and for sale. This realtor’s listing was updated in July. Photo I believe is from 2017.
https://www.coldwellbankerhomes.com/md/baltimore/4604-liberty-heights-avenue/pid_20806326/
David, what would a current view look like? What’s happening?
The Google street view has not been updated since 2012, so it still shows the boarded up Ambassador Theatre.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/4604+Liberty+Heights+Ave,+Baltimore,+MD+21207/Shea’s Performing Arts Center.3311293,-76.6949205,3a,75y,9.43h,99.44t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s3nRVVcH3v9cobth3c8NxXg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656!4m5!3m4!1s0x89c81baeea468b9b:0x481f8777956b31b8!8m2!3d39.3314991!4d-76.6948525
jammer, where did you live back then? I was on Forest Park Avenue, a few blocks below the golf course.
My and I spend many hours watching films at this theater in the 60’s . From West side Story to The Nutty Professor to to the Wild Angels and John Wayne in The Sons of Katie Elder and so many more . I can still remember the concession counter and as you walked to your seats the “ Restroom ” sign was lit in neon purple and the door leading to the balcony. Unlike the photograph they show here , they have those purple lights on the walls next to the screen and made a bit spooky for a kid under 10 .And on rainy days they still used the same long tent , so you be dropped off at the curb and not get wet to the ticket booth and it was the same one from the 30’s . I passed by there during the 80’s and saw it was a beauty shop . I never known till I saw a picture years ago with a theater across the street was called in the 60’s Penn Fruit grocery store. The hangout for teens was Reads down at the end of the block Since I spent my childhood going to the Ambassador and Crest with my family and friends . Even as a kid , the outside of the Theater always seemed special and am glad its a Landmark , since I had never seen another Theater in Baltimore built like that ever .
The September 15th, 1935 grand opening ad can be found in the photo section for this cinema.
Art deco beauty in this theatre.
Linkrot repair: The December 14, 1935, Boxoffice article about the Ambassador Theatre can now be found at this link.
Sad to report that The Ambassador caught fire around 12:30 this morning http://www.wbaltv.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/Crews-battle-fires-at-historic-movie-theater-row-home/–/10131532/15410282/–/dn95c2/–/index.html No word on the cause of it as yet.
Here is another photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yks5hfy
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.
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.
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
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.
Not only possible, probable. They never come out without leaving SOME evidence of having been there. I could find none.
Sorry, Having trouble with the html, try THIS.
I found the Ambassador pics I took during my “tour” in 2005. All but one of them are of the exterior and show it pretty much as it is now. The one interior shot can be found HERE and shows the stage-left “organ”/HVAC grille from the best vantage point I could access, standing on a precarious support and shooting through a tile removed from the dropped grid ceiling at that point. Even with flash on the camera, the wretched lighting made for no other usable pictures. The grille is very “deco” as can be seen.
Actually, theatre organs being one of my loves, my main interest in going thru the building at the time was to determine if an organ had ever been installed. None of the standard references listed one and from my inspection I can say pretty definitively that they are correct. But it is also my judgment that one COULD have been installed if a suitable restoration of the building was ever undertaken.
So much for the revitalization project. I haven’t been by there in a few years but its sad to read that the property has been allowed to deteriorate the way it is described.
When I went thru the building when it was being marketed about three years ago, about the only original detail remaining was portions of the “grills” where, if one had ever been installed, the organ chambers would have been. In this instance, it looked like these areas had always been used as air-handling feeds or returns. The rest of the space was abysmal, the balcony had been enclosed and hap-hazardly converted to office space. Mold was rampant and the building reeked of dampness. I’ll link to some pictures if I can locate them.
Wow, does THAT look like a can of worms. If you follow the “Details†link in the previous post you will see the “Maryland Residential Property Disclosure and Disclaimer Statement†filed last year by the owner. To begin with, why this property is being characterized as a “Residence†when the Maryland Department of Assessments and Taxation clearly has it listed as “Commercial†[url]http://sdatcert3.resiusa.org/rp_rewrite/details.aspx?County=03&SearchType=STREET&AccountNumber=28%20%2002%20%208252%20%20%20003[/url] is a mystery. That link also shows that the property was purchased in 2006 for $300,000. The current listing price is $475,000.
In the Property Disclosure and Disclaimer Statement several salient questions seem to have been “skipped” altogether, e.g., Question #4 “Other Structural Systems, Including Exterior Walls and Floors: Any defects (structural or otherwise)? The available answers are Yes, No or Unknown. The Owner has made no entry. The same holds true for three other germaine questions.
Further, the City Permit and Code Enforcement web page shows that the only Building Permit issued for the property since 2002 is one which expired in August, 2006, taken out for the purpose of “cleaning up trash left by the previous owner. If there is active demolition currently taking place (as indicated in the listing), it is being done without City Permit and probably without its knowledge, so enter at your own risk indeed!
There are bad neighborhoods everywhere. That doesn’t mean there couldn’t be one here.
the neighobr can not have a movie houes the peolpe that live in the neighobr is to bad