Garden Theatre
4601 New Utrecht Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11219
4601 New Utrecht Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11219
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Built before World War I, this movie house was medium sized. It had no balcony. During the late 1940’s and 50’s the Garden was known by neighborhood children as “the Dump”. By then it was showing B- and C- grade films. The more elegant, Loew’s 46th Street (formerly the Universal, built in the 1920’s) was across the street from it.
Before air conditioning, the Garden featured a roof that opened at night.
Contributed by
ERD
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Recent comments (view all 11 comments)
The Garden theatre was the first or second theatre build next to the trains in the Borough Park section of Brooklyn. (West End and Garden theatres were built before the “el” structure was put up.)
I found two different C/O’s both dated September 13, 1927. Both are for an existing building. One C/O is for a 554 seat motion picture theater (interior). The second C/O is for a 936 seat open air motion picture theater. Did this theater have a rooftop theater or was the open air theater next to it? The indoor theater was owned by A. Baron and the outdoor theater was owned by Max Baron.
This Garden theatre was definately torn down in the 1950’s. (I live a few blocks from it as a child) It was built before 1919 as I have pre World War II .If you look at the description above, it had a roof that opened. It was never used after the theatre was air conditioned. The address was 4601 New Utrecht Avenue. A supremarket was built afterwards, and that was followed by a lumber store and yard which is there now.
correction: as I have pre World War II pictures.
correction: as I have pre World War II pictures.
ERD…..I don’t dispute anything that you wrote. In 1927, the Garden Theater was already there so being built prior to 1919 is very possible. I went back and read those documents again. This is what NYC records show. There was no rooftop theater. There were two theaters adjacent to each other. The indoor theater was located at 4601-07 New Utrecht Avenue. The open air theater had an address of 4609-13 New Utrecht Avenue. The open air theater was completed in June of 1926. I don’t know when the open air theater closed. My guess would be after air conditioning was installed in the Garden Theater.
Let me clarify something in my previous post. The open air theater was not built in June of 1926. It could have been built prior to 1919 like the indoor theater was. Work was done on both theaters in 1926 and in 1927 and new C/O’s were issued to both buildings. Neither building was “New” in 1926 or 1927. What these documents show is, there were two theaters operating in 1926-27.
The Garden theatre probably build an open air theatre behind it(Enternace may have been on New Utrecht Ave.)If so, it did not last long. By 1927, Loew’s 46th Street(Universal)theatre was built and the Garden soon became a second & third run house. It was in very bad condition when I was a child. As I mentioned, it was torn down by the mid 1950’s.
I don’t remember any of the decorations in the auditorium, only the usherette screaming at us children on the weekend shows.
In 1950 the Garden Theater had 525 seats.