RKO Bushwick Theatre

Actually, the old girl looked pretty good, even near the end of its cinematic run! I would have envisioned a more seedy appearance by the mid 1960’s.

Thanks Joe G, that is very interesting.

Sounds like you had lots of fun back in your youth, Joe G.

Indeed, some conversions do work out for the better of the building’s life, especially the ones you mentioned John. Regarding the Bushwick, it is a shame that such a unique asymmetrical building was left to decay after the church decided to leave. At least someone recognized this fact and turned it into the beautiful school that stands tall and proud today.

LuisV
The theater was called the Acme,located on Myrtle ave. in Queens. The building is in very good shape,its a small neighborhood type venue that had a renovation and it looks quite well for its age, especially considering it received an exterior paint job of yellow.
The remnants include the marquee,the columns and a very intricate molding that runs along the edge of the ceiling.Finally, some of the sloped floor still exists at the checkout counters. One day while doing some shopping and exploring, my cart rolled away as I was checking out!

LuisV in reply to supermarkets usually doing total guts upon renovation, the Acme on Myrtle ave.,which is now a supermarket, still has some of its theater features intact.

I have recently realized that more banking halls have been reused than I thought. Besides the banks that have been turned into catering halls (Citibank Wall Street, Greenwich Savings Broadway, Bowery Savings on 42nd Street and on the Bowery) I have come across the following other uses.

Trader Joe’s in downtown Brooklyn is inside an old Independence Savings Bank Bldg. Balducci’s market is inside an old NY Bank for Savings branch on 8th Ave and 14th St and right across the Street there is a day spa “Nickel” with condo residences above in another old banking hall. The old Williamsburgh Savings Bank headquarters on Flatbush Avenue is still for rent and awaiting its new retail life.

I don’t believe that any old theaters have been successfully turned into supermarkets and by successfully I mean that the architecture has been preserved and integrated into its new use as a food hall. Usually, when a supermarket takes over it is a gut renovation.

Roseland was not a theater! I too have danced here many a time and had an amazing time. Webster Hall looks like a theater, it even has a stage, but it was more of a meeting hall and so it is not on CT either. Webster Hall was used as the theater in “To Wong Fu, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar” I have yet to attend an event at the Hammerstein Ballroom. I hear its beautiful.

Wow! I’m happy to say that that was before my time, but I already feel old when I talk about Studio 54, Palladium, Red Parrot, Saint, Roxy, Sound Factory, Limelight, Copacabana, Danceteria, Tunnel, Area, Regines, Visage, 2001 Odyssey, Underground, Xenon, Webster Hall, etc, etc. It was the golden age of Discos and much like the theater palaces they will never be built like this again. I doubt that New York will ever see a return of the spectacular clubs that defined New York in the 80’s and early 90’s. They simply will never build them like that ever again. Manhattan has become too expensive. There are no more abandoned theaters and warehouses to be converted into clubs. I feel fortunate that I was able to enjoy them when they were in their prime which is something that I can’t say about the old movie palaces. By the time I started going to theaters in the 70’s, the vast majority of the theaters were already on their last legs, grimy and suffering from decades of neglect as they struggled to hold on. Ironically, I only got to see theaters like the Commodore, Forum, Gallo Opera House, Henry Miller, Academy of Music once they were converted to discoteques. I’m grateful to have seen them as they were all beautiful theaters that were adaptively resused and keep open for many more years than they otherwise would have been. Today, only the old Studio 54 (which actually never showed films) is still with us today; restored to a formal Broadway house.

Thanks, LuisV. From Sunday morning fervor and faith to Saturday Night Fever.

There was also the church turned disco in the 1992 film “Basic Instinct”.

Thanks Bway, I knew that you were kidding, but there are a lot of people who really did consider this sacriligious. We’re lucky we live in New York where religion doesn’t hold much sway. You probably wouldn’t have been able to do this in any other major city in the US with the exception of of our country’s other greatest city: San Francisco.

Back to the photo of the Bushwick: it’s funny that I said that the photo was from 70’s Bushwick, but in fact, it was the early 90’s! New York in general, and Bushwick in particular, has seen incredible strides in the last 15 – 20 years.

Also, Bway, since you’re interested in adaptive reuses, I remember going to a club in downtown Los Angeles in the late 80’s called “The Exchange” which was a disco created from the old Los Angeles Stock Exchange Bldg. All I really remember was that there were really high ceilings and a lot of interior greek columns (I think Corinthian). Oh, and that I had a lot of fun!

Luis, I wasn’t seriously saying it was “sacrelige”, I meant that more as a joke, but it is an odd site to say the least. I think there was a club in Southern California also that was once a church. I totally agree, I actually am highly interested in buildings that got converted from one use to another, and a church is particularly interesting when converted, even more so than a theater.
There’s a historic church in Jamaica by the Jamaica Center building on Jamaica Ave that was preserved and converted into a theater, after sitting abandoned for decades.

As for the NY Times photo mentioned, yes, there is a 1992 photo in the NY Times, and in the background is the in shambles RKO Bushwick Theater. Bushwick has sure come a long way since that photo was taken. Now the RKO Bushwick is restored (exterior), a McDonalds stands on the vacant lot, and a Walgreens where that horrible abandoned building is: