Grand View Theatre

They have built an apartment house on this site.

Good point! The train that ran on the ground was a steam engine. Maybe the LIRR did lease the ROW to the Brooklyn Rapid Transit or they leased the engine to them.

I have no idea what the LIRR used the property for. The deed only says that it was owned by them. A “hastily built” theater? Like the Ridgewood Folly? Tom said that the original theater was built in 1908 and sold around 1912. By 1915 this theater is supposed to be closed. The building that stands there today is listed as being built in 1916. Why would a building that was no more than 8 years old be torn down and replaced with another wooden building with a store on the bottom? Why not just convert the Grand View into a store? Going back to “hastily built” again, a building like the Ridgewood Folly wouldn’t be worth converting since it lacked a roof and the sidewalls were only about five or six feet high. This would lead me to believe that the Grand View was an open theater like the Folly was. Maybe it wasn’t the Folly but it was very similar.

I mentioned this somewhere, but I forgot where. What is now the M train el was built in the 1800’s as a steam railroad. It was not an LIRR line. It is described as a “dummy steam railroad to the Lutheran cemetery” on old maps. A dummy steam engine was made in a way that would not frighten horses. It did indeed run on the ground. The stations were in the same places that they are now, at Seneca/Palmetto Sts, and at Forest/Putnam Aves. The Forest Ave was between Woodward Ave and Fairview Ave, just as it is now on the el. Eventually, the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Corp, took over the steam railroad, and connected it to the end of it’s Myrtle Ave El at Myrtle/Wyckoff Aves, and the line ran rapid transit cars. There was a ramp from the station at Wyckoff, that went down to ground level and the el trains ran off the el there, and ran on the ground to Metropolitan Ave station. The el was completed in 1914 or 1915, at which time the elevated trains ran on the el, and the old right of way on the ground was converted to trolley service (which lasted into the 50’s).

I’m trying to find out the history of this area myself. I’m interested in what role the LIRR played in the developement of the area. In one of the messages above, you posted that these small neighborhood theaters were “located near factories, taverns and other high traffic areas”. When this theater was open, the train ran on the ground and it was within two blocks of this theater. I don’t know exactly where the train station was located at that time but getting customers shouldn’t have been a problem. The construction of the “el” might have played a role in this theaters closing.

The address that you gave is located on the S/W corner of Woodward ave. There is a wooden building built around 1916 standing there today. I’m not sure what the building located next to it at 714 Woodward is constructed of. The land on the west side of Woodbine was divided into lots and registered ten years before the land on the east side of Woodbine was registered. There is also a mention of the LIRR owning the peoperty on the east side of Woodbine. I don’t know what they used it for. When the Grand View opened in 1912 as you posted above, the train had not been elevated yet. Maybe the LIRR was using the land for construction purposes while the “el” was being built. It must have been very noisey at that location when the “el” was being built. Maybe thats the reason that this theater closed.

While the pieces fit, I can’t prove it.
The Ridgewood Folly was on a corner lot, with the cross street to the left, and another building to the right – just as this property. However, this happens exponentially all over the place, so while this won’t prove this is the site, it does prove it’s a contender.
Why I don’t actually think this is the case, is the fact the in the photo of the Ridgewood Folly I have seem, the building to the right of the Folly is a brick building (or appears to be). There is no building on the Grand View block or Woodward Ave. Under most circumstances, a brick building would not be torn down to replace it with a wood frame building, but anything is possible.

I have never lived in Ridgewood although I did live in Howard Beach for a brief time. I notice that my spelling of Wooward Avenue has been corrected. I have read some postings from the so called ‘Kooky People’. Many of their statements may hold some truth only they knowingly led you to the wrong theatre.

This part of Ridgewood is Queens and always was Queens. My grandmother lived in that area since the 1920’s. They had a Brooklyn zip code, and used the Brooklyn post office….but it was the borough of Queens. The border between Queens and Brooklyn never changed…only the sip code lines. This is that endless debate causing the confusion. It’s also why that area of Queens escaped the Queens numbering system on many of it’s streets.

The borders might have changed but as a theatre, in its' entire run as a film house the Grand View was always listed as a Brooklyn house in reference and newspaper advertising. I know some of you from the area might dispute this but “that’s the fact”. I don’t think this place was in operation after the so called borders changed.

The building that is located on that site today is listed as being built in 1916 so your estimate on the Grand Views closing is not far off. Now for the $64 question, was the prior theater the Ridgewood Folly? I’m still researching this area so I don’t know the answer to that yet.
In the Folly message area, there were alot of posts by the “kooky” people about the Grandview theater replacing the Ridgewood Folly. We all assumed that it was the Grandview theater located on Grandview avenue that replaced the Folly because we weren’t aware of this Grand View theater. Maybe the “kooky” people pointed us in the right direction but we took a wrong turn by believing it was the other Grandview. The Folly does seem to be a better “fit” at this location than any other up to this point.