The Maryland Theatre was nearly destroyed by a fire in the 1970’s. The theatre itself was built behind an apartment building with the lobby running from the street to the auditorium. The two buildings were separate, with a distance of about fifteen feet between them. A passage way connected them. The fire destroyed the apartment building but the fire department confined the fire and saved the theatre itself. The lobby was destroyed. A preservation group was formed and saved the theatre, adding a small lobby on the front.
As I watched the firemen bring the fire under control, I asked one of them how bad the theatre itself was. His reply was that you could show a movie there tonight. (If you could stand the smoke.)
A footnote to the story: Several years after the apartment building was demolished, workmen excavating the area where it stood found the bones of a man who disappeared around the time of the fire. He had evidently been sleeping in the basement the night of the fire and his remains were overlooked.
The Maryland Theatre was nearly destroyed by a fire in the 1970’s. The theatre itself was built behind an apartment building with the lobby running from the street to the auditorium. The two buildings were separate, with a distance of about fifteen feet between them. A passage way connected them. The fire destroyed the apartment building but the fire department confined the fire and saved the theatre itself. The lobby was destroyed. A preservation group was formed and saved the theatre, adding a small lobby on the front.
As I watched the firemen bring the fire under control, I asked one of them how bad the theatre itself was. His reply was that you could show a movie there tonight. (If you could stand the smoke.)
A footnote to the story: Several years after the apartment building was demolished, workmen excavating the area where it stood found the bones of a man who disappeared around the time of the fire. He had evidently been sleeping in the basement the night of the fire and his remains were overlooked.