Colonial Theatre

Lou, that church you are talking about is I believe “Our Lady of Lourdes” RC Church. According to something Peter read, he said that the church was torn down because of some kind of “interference” with planes or something. It sounds ridiculous, but then again, anything is possible. What a shame.
Yes, Bushwick is finally “coming back”. There is lots of life being pumped back in to that neighborhood. I believe Bedford-Stuyvesant is a little further along in “gentrification”, however, Bushwick isn’t far behind it. Both areas really are stating to look quite sharp campared to what they were like in the 70’s and 80’s. They still have a ways to go, but there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel….finally.

You’re welcome, Lou Rom. Although I was born in Bushwick, I never really lived there. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia, between Cypress and Wyckoff, from my birth date until September 1991. Up until September 1968 I used the Irving Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at Irving and Madison, then started using the Ridgewood library. I took walks with my Dad in Irving Square Park until September 1967.

My Dad was born in Bushwick, near Putnam and Howard, and lived first there, then at Evergreen and Moffat, 1070 Decatur, the 700 block of Chauncey Street, on Moffat between Central and Evergreen, and finally 1454 Bushwick between Chauncey and Pilling. Then he got married. For awhile he and my mom lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park. Then they bought their home on Cornelia Street, moved in, and then I was born.

My dad remembers seeing the Karloff “Frankenstein” at the Colonial as a boy of 12 when it first came out.

When I hear Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” I get this feeling of being safe in my dad’s parents' home, either 1454 Bushwick or the 700 block of Chauncey Street.

I still enjoy riding the 14th Street Canarsie Line between Halsey St. and Bway Junction and looking out over Bushwick and the cemeteries. My mother’s parents are buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.

Do you consider the urban blight to be the arson and looting that started during the July 13 1977 blackout or sometime before that ?

I was born on Chauncey Street, between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway, in mid-November 1955.

Chauncey Street’s southern end is at Fulton Street in Brooklyn postal zone 33, Stuyvesant. It then runs approximately east northeast from Fulton Street to Broadway, turns to northeast in crossing Broadway, and ends at Central Avenue, three long blocks northeast of Broadway, in Brooklyn postal zone 7, East New York. I have always thought of that end of Chauncey Street as being in Bushwick, even though Bushwick, postal zone 21, is a few blocks away to the northwest.

It is easy to argue neighborhood boundaries and get confused because they are vague. The separate towns that the neighborhoods once were have merged into each other and no longer officially exist. Postal zone boundaries are definite but do not necessarily agree with the common understanding of the boundaries of some neighborhoods, as noted above.

As is the Broadway in my screen name….
Do you know if the theater became a church right after it closed as a theater in 1954, or did it sit empty and abandoned for some years before becoming a church? When did it become a church?

No, I am not. I think you have confused me with the Peter J. Koch, known by lostmemory, from Grover Cleveland High School.

You’re welcome. Have you checked out the page for it on this site ?

I don’t know. The one theater I know of between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue on DeKalb Avenue is the DeKalb Theatre, 1153-55 DeKalb Avenue, later re-named the New Casino Theater, new because the original Casino Theater was at Flatbush Avenue and State Street in downtown Bklyn. There is a page for the DeKalb / Casino on this site.

Thanks, Bway, I’ll read about the Evergeen on the Ridgewood page of this site.

Glad you liked my fire escape story about the Colonial. Yes, it is so “old Brooklyn”, like a Neil Simon play.

Bway, I will continue to use the Brooklyn-Queens border as tbe Bushwick-Ridgewood border, until someone proves to me I should do otherwise.

I tend to think of Broadway as the boundary between Bushwick to the northeast, and Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, East New York, and Broadway Junction to the southwest, although the 21 Bushwick postal zone extends southwest past Broadway, and the RKO Bushwick theater itself
is on the southwest side of Broadway.

Warren, I seem to recall you posting information about the chronology of the Colonial Theater on a page for another theater, but I can’t seem to find it. I would appreciate you posting this info on the Colonial Theater page if you can find it. Thanks.

Warren, the only thing I’ve read about Bushwick theaters drawing their patronage from Ridgewood, was in an “Our Neighborhood” installment of the Times Newsweekly, about a year ago, which mentioned people in 1951 going to see “Quo Vadis” at Loew’s Gates in Bushwick, instead of at the Belvedere on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale.

My father recalls the Colonial’s outdoor summer cinema drawing its “patronage” from people watching the films free from the exterior fire escapes of their homes, near the intersection of Rockaway Avenue and Chauncey Street.

Warren, thanks for checking the Brooklyn Eagle, and posting a comment on what you’ve read.

Neighborhood boundaries are vague. A friend of an e-friend of mine lived at Evergreen and Greene Avenues, clearly in Bushwick, until 1969, yet he always referred to where he lived as Ridgewood. The Colonial Theater is on the boundary between the Stuyvesant (33) and East New York (7) postal zones of Brooklyn. I tend to think of it as between the neighborhoods of Bushwick and East New York, or Broadway Junction, not on the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, which, to me, is part of the Brooklyn-Queens border.

I’m not sure where the Colonial drew its patronage from.

The Colonial is used as an evangelical church. Much of the interior is still intact, but re-decorated in different colors from the original, which was nothing to get very excited over. It was always just a plain, neighborhood theatre, originally built by the S&S Circuit (Small & Strausberg), which was later acquired by William Fox and eventually spun into the Randforce Circuit. The Colonial was situated at 1746 Broadway and had 2,222 seats, according to the 1944 Film Daily Year Book, which I believe is a bit exaggerated. I would guess 2,000 at most.

posted by Warren on May 12, 2004 at 4:26pm

And here’s a link to a current view of the Wayside Baptist Church, once the Colonial Theater….as requested in the Magestic’s section.
The theater is right under the Chauncey Street station on the Broadway El.
Colonial Theater Photo