Laurelton Theatre

Hey saps! Sorry I kept you hanging on the wire here! Ha ha. I actually did drive by the Laurelton, not too long after my last post, but without camera in hand. I can report, however, that the theater building is very much still standing. The renovations planned by the church seem to have been completed, with radical changes to the entrance facade and storefronts along Merrick Boulevard. I’m sure the lobby area has been completely remodelled as well, but I can’t confirm that. I’ll have to see if I’m able to get inside at some point and then allowed to take photos to update the batch I posted from early 2006.

I guess the only way to find out for sure is to get down there for another visit. Will see if I can swing by either tomorrow or sometime next week.

Can’t tell from the street view if the building is being gutted and/or demolished or if the congregation has finally been able to proceed with the expansion and renovations it was planning when I last visited several years back. I just added the photos I had previously posted from that visit – and in one of the shots, a model of the proposed construction is displayed in the former ticket lobby.

Queens was always unique among the boroughs, and also, Nassau and Suffolk Counties were originally a part of Queens.

Yes, Chris, this is unique. Sometime back when I was trying to find a theatre in Queens and looked for it by the community name I couldn’t find it. I then discovered many of the Queens theatres were listed as Queens and not by the town names. Some had the town and Queens which made the lookup difficult. I contacted the CT people and had all those corrected. The only one right now which is incorrect is the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria which was recently added including “Queens”. I notified CT but when last I checked they hadn’t done the update.

Staten Island also has community names. I guess I should check out CT references to Staten Island for correction.

Chris, I found a link to the photos in Lost Memory’s post of 8/18/08. The link brought me to the last photo of the set and you can move backward through them.

Where could I see Ed’s photos of the Laurelton?

Ed, your post from September of ‘07 was very astute. Those blockbusters behaved in an outrageously unethical fashion. I haven’t a bigoted bone in my body, and I sincerely wish that all of our communities were racially balanced, but that is sadly not the case. In a matter of five years, and I do NOT exaggerate, Laurelton’s racial makeup changed completely, and I blame this on the white population that was terrified of having a black neighbor. I grew up in Valley Stream, just east of Laurelton, and my parents grew up in Springfield Gardens, just to the west, so I know from what I speak. That being said, let’s talk about the Laurelton Theater. My family church was one block south of the theater, and I had a lot of friends in Laurelton, as a kid and a young adult. Laurelton was a hot fifteen minute bike ride from home for me. I saw many, many a movie at the Laurelton, and I have to say that my best guess as to when it was built would be the early 30s, given the interior decor, which was an advanced Art Deco style strongly influenced by a Chinese motif, with the auditorium lighting a joss-house effect. This was a very small theater, with no balcony, and the restrooms were up a single staircase. You came to the ladies’ first, passed the projection room, and then there was the mens', which was quite small. I saw countless movies here, from “Imitation of Life” when I was eight, to “The Birds,” “West Side Story,” and many others. I can’t remember what movie that I saw in ‘58 when the small lobby was decorated for the next attraction, “Separate Tables”. Two small dining tables and chairs were on display, and the tables had complete place settings; the most novel detail was that there were place cards on the tables, on one for “Rita Hayworth” and “Burt Lancaster,” and on the other for “Deborah Kerr” and “David Niven”. Imagine seeing anything like that now! I checked the theater today on Google Maps, and I’m sad to say that the congregation that occupied it for years has gone, and the building has been gutted. Everytime that a part of my childhood is destroyed like this is like a piece of my heart being torn out.
Ed Miller

Hi Peter, sorry AFAIK is abbreviation for “As Far As I Know”.

All I can say is WOW. My family has lived next door to the Laurelton library since sometime in the 80’s AFAIK (only 20) and I had absolutely no idea about the history in the area. I stumbled upon this page out of complete randomness but I’m glad I did, thanks guys!

Thanks for your post, Warren. Yet another old theatre has become a church.

You also see this entryway slope in many of the legitimate Broadway theatres.