To indicate the condition of the former Miller-Capitol Theatre in the 1980s, NYC didn’t bother to photograph any part of this building. In fact, the only image that I’ve ever seen online, was when the Daily News covered the funeral of Yusef Hawkins in 1989.
Somewhere, there’s a picture of police snipers on the rooftops diagonally across the street from the church. In that shot, you can see a bit of the Dean Street entrance of the Miller Capitol.
You also can see a very brief shot of it in the 2020 HBO documentary, “Yusef Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”, which I’m uploading.
This theatre IS NOT in Bedford-Stuyvesant. It’s in Ocean-Hill. Bed-Stuy begins nearly a mile away, at Broadway.
The correct name of this theatre is indeed, the Miller-Capitol Theatre. I’m doing my best to locate a picture of it carved into the building. Unfortunately, as the theatre had been long-closed, no one who I knew thought to actually photograph it, much less the facade.
By the late 60s, it was pretty nondescript & carving aside, showed no internal remnants of having ever been a movie theatre. It was just another old building that contained a store of Pacific, a store on Dean, becoming the equivalent of an indoor junkyard by the mid-70s.
@Orlando, I live right down the block from here. You wouldn’t & couldn’t have seen an auditorium because by 1969, the Dean Street entrance was a country store & in 1939, the entrance on Pacific & Saratoga was a store called Herkimer Dairy & by 1969, was an egg carton facility owned by my neighbor, Cliff Huins.
No lobby has ever been visible & no storefronts existed since at least the mid 60s. The entire building was taken over by Afro Carting in the mid 70s, which went out of business shortly after the crack epidemic hit the neighborhood in 1986.
The building was abandoned & the entire structure wasn’t razed until 2003. For years, it sat there as an eyesore & a somewhat dangerous one. I took pictures when they began construction of the new homes in March 2004. I’m looking at them as I write this.
I’m not sure what you were thinking of, but no auditorium existed since the 60s. In fact, if you check the pictures of the Yusef Hawkins funeral, you may catch a glimpse of the building as we’ve known it from the late 60s - beyond. By the 1980s, interior of this building looked nothing like the 1940s tax ID Photo. The interior had been converted to retail use & all of the storefronts had been bricked-in in the 1960s.
Just wanted to add a couple of comments…The Pool Hall that wasmentioned survived into the 1980s. The diner survived into the new millenium. As for the former Mueller’s Hotel, when I was a young DJ in 1976, it contained an after-hours club named Arizona Barbara’s. It was a very popular spot, with strippers & all & in those crazy Disco days of the mid-to-late 70s, it had a large clientele & with the Transit Depot being right across the street,needless to say, it was very popular with the transit workers. After Arizona Barbara’s closed for the night, the folks would continue the partying at my club, Club Atlantis a few blocks away at Atlantic Avenue & Wyona Street.
Arizona Barbara’s closed down some time during the 1980s & became a welfare hotel/shelter.
I’ve corrected the street view. The former site of the Gotham had been a lot as far back as I can remember. At one point, from the 90s forward, it was a used car lot until the Imperial Hotel was built on its site a few years ago.
Tinseltoes, Precious little information is found about the theatre &most of the people whom lived here back then have either moved away long ago, or have passed on. The only thing that I can find in reference to it is that it catered to a Negro audience. I have also been saying how I remembered seeing “Miller Capitol Theatre” being engraved on the building. While searching theatres, I found this link to the theatre which shows that in 1921, an organ was shipped to the MILLERCapitol Theatre.
I have a great memory & knew that I wasn’t imagining it. I’ll keep digging to see what more I can find out. By the way, I have a picture that has been blown up, taken from Pacific Street showing the entrance on Pacific Street & Saratoga Avenue, which is close to the view which appears above. It’s pretty blurred, but it’s the best that I can do for now.
I found some information about the Globe. In April 1940, it became the Good Tidings Gospel Hall, where the congregation remained until 1983. Here’s a link to the website which has a couple of pictures from 1940 & the 1970s…
http://goodtidingsbrooklyn.org/5.html
Today, it’s the home of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church & you can see a picture of it today on their Facebook page…
I stand corrected. The “other” Miller Theatre was on Saratoga Ave between Bergen St & St. Marks Ave. in the middle of the block. By the time that I moved down the street in 1969 it was a supermarket. I was also confused because while everyone refers to the theatre a block & ½ away on Dean & Saratoga Ave. as the Capitol Theatre, I distinctly remember seeing the name “Miller Capitol Theatre” engraved on the facade above the entrance on Dean St. & Saratoga Ave. It was by then a store, but I distinctly remember seeing that name & I’ve always known it to be as such.
I have a correction to make due to not looking closely & confusing it with another nearby church. I live diagonally across the street from this building & indeed it is a church. When I moved here in 1969, this building was then a supermarket, for some reason, Associated comes to mind.
At that point, there was no decor which would’ve led me to believe that it had once been a theatre. However, whereas the building has been refaced, back then, the external facing indeed looked like that of many neighborhood movies minus the marquee.
I only wish that I had been old enough back then to understand the history that surrounded me, as well as the many theatres which still stood back then. And I wish that I had understood how drastically things would change & how many of those theatres & building would simply disappear in a relatively short period of time.
It’s next to impossible to find any pictures of these buildings & most of the old neighbors whom would’ve had them have either moved away decades ago or are dead.
I don’t understand the location as all three streets run from east to west & follow one another. Walking from North to South one would pass Fulton St., Hermkimer St. & Atlantic Ave, as the streets follow one another consecutively. What was the cross street where the theatre was located?
Fatman – Thank you for the look back at my old neighborhood! You have a picture of my family’s old house. One of the Glenmore Avenue pictures (Between Jerome & Warwick) is my family’s old house. The Mobil.Flying A station is on the N.W. corner & the old house is on the N.W. corner (it’s the one with the tire store on the ground level). I found the picture awhile back & blew it up a bit. Glenmore Hall was on the south side of Glenmore between Jerome & Warwick & was owned by a older slim man named Kenny. I’m a 60s baby, so by the time that I moved there immediately following the ‘65 blackout, things were already beginning to change. Fortunately, I did get to enjoy quite a few years there before things really went to pot. My mother & a few of her sisters & brothers went to JHS 64. I went to I.S. 302. I’d love to see a picture of the Packers Supermarket which was on Atlantic bet. Van Siclen & Hendrix, where the McDonald’s is located. I’ve forgotten what used to be on the site where they built I.S. 292. & would love to see that as well.
The entire block hasn’t been razed, as the apartment building on the corner of Saratoga at the far right of the street view was there back then.
As with Saluki16, I grew up across the street from that poolroom & the candy store of which he speaks was run by The Clayton’s & we used to call the lady Ms. Estelle, which means that he lived in the building right next to mine, though I moved there in 1969.
This would be around the corner from The Capitol Theatre, but I remember when it was a store with the name “Miller Capitol Theatre” engraved into the brickface. I sure wish that I had thought to take a picture of it back then, but I was a kid, it was a general store, later convertedto the Afro Carting Company & I had no idea of the significance of it back then.
If this picture is accurate, then it was located on the Corner of Jamaica Avenue & what was then New York Boulevard. I believe that it is because in 1980, I became a DJ in that very building which became a skating rink named The Jamaica Rollerdome & the address was 92-07 new York Blvd (Now Guy Brewer Blvd).
After going up the steps on the 2nd floor, that was where the skate floor was located. In order to get
to the DJ booth, I had to go to the far left & scale another flight of stairs which appeared to have once been a movie balcony.
Those who know the area will remember that N.Y. Blvd (Guy Brewer Blvd) cuts off at Jamaica Ave, where it became 163rd St. as you headed north toward Hillside Avenue. Diagonally across the street was Woolworth’s & in the late 70s, The Wiz was directly across the street on the S.W. corner.
Since the link won’t take, simply go to digitalgallery.nypl.org
and search for
Brooklyn: Pacific Street – Hopkinson Avenue
After doing so, use the zoom function & soom all the way in & at the top of the picture you’ll be able to see the Pacific St. entrance of The Miller Capitol Theatre on the corner of Saratoga Avenue.
gthe new building which is visible is on the opposite side of the street, across from where the Pacific St. entrance of the theatre would’ve been located, but by then been long bricked in. That entire building that you see across from the salon used to be an apartment building on the corner, several 3 family homes, a restaurant which was a fish & chips place, a liquor store & closest to Atlantic Avenue side, a store that sold knick-knacks & books. before that, the store sold used appliances. This would’ve been from the 60s through the 80s & early 90s. That building is kinda like a Home Depot, selling roofing supplies & the like. If you go to this link:
When I moved into the neighborhood in 1969, the building was still standing with the words “Miller Capitol Theatre inscribed on the outside about 2 stories up. By then, it had become a little grocery store owned by an elderly woman named Miss Fanny. After she died, the building was vacant, then taken over by The Afro Carting Co. After they went out of business, this building still stood, but during that time, the crack epidemic took hold passing that building became somewhat dangerous. Eventually, the building was razed & replaced by "affordable” 2-family housing. I’ll be uploading pictures for the site, both when they were building the new housing, as well as how it looks today.
I remember the ice cream parlor very well, it was right under the stairs of the Cleveland St. J train station. Being a 60s baby, I likely missed the glory days. But while attending P.S. 108, I had a classmate named Lorraine Von Thaden. By that time (mid-late 60s), her parents owned the ice cream parlor. I seem to remember a diner/restaurant a few doors down where I used to buy baseball cards & magazines.
@Tapeshare – I’ve visited your site & knew you a long time ago. I see that you have pictures of a few of my old classmates & one of my P.S. 108 punchball team mates named Tony Kachykalo. I haven’t seen him since we graduated in 1971, but I’ve never forgotten him. I still remember most of the kids whom I went to school with.
It’s amazing to think of the things that stay with you!
Purplehayes, I see that you’re about 10 years older than I, but I found quite a few pictures of the neighborhood on the net. When I locate the links, I’ll post them. Even found one of my grandparents old place, to where I moved following the 1965 blackout. Now what I’d REALLY love to see is a picture of Packers Supermarket on Atlantic between Hendrix & Van Siclen, where the McDonald’s now stands. I loved that supermarket & I wish that that neighborhood never changed. It was perfect for a young kid to grow up in.
And thank you for those wonderful pictures of Kays 5&10 & the appliance store. I sure wish that I could find one of Wing Shing!!! They really bring back some great memories. Does anyone remember a family by the name of Canapana? They lived around the corner from me on Warwick between Glenmore & Liberty. I remember their daughter named Ann Marie who became sick when we were children & became wheelchair bound. They lived two doors down from a family named the Ashers & right next door to a family named Douglas. I also seem to recall that they also had family on Essex between liberty & Glenmore, but I haven’t seen them in about 40 years. My family were The Baxters & before moving to Glenmore & Warwick, they lived on Elton between Glenmore & Liberty.
My grandmother lived on Glenmore & Warwick right across the street from the Flying A gas station. I moved there in 1965 & that neighborhood was great. First of all, we were black & all of us kids got along. Down the block between Warwick & Glenmore was a bar named Glenmore Hall & on the corner of Jerome was Joe Ragona’s store. His wife was named Mary & he had a daughter named Cathy.
I remember Kay’s 5 & 10 very well because when we didn’t go downtown or the “extension” on Pitkin Ave., we shopped there. I also remember the chinese restaurant across the street named Wing Shing & their food was great! I also remember the Appliance store across the street where we’d buy our records & doesn’t anyone remember Paladino’s on Pitkin & Elton where we’d buy icees & “punks” that we lit to light our firecrackers? I also remember the hardware store & laundry that were on Pitkin between Elton & Linwood Sts. They were on the opposite side of the street from Kays 5 & 10.
Also fondly remembered is the ice cream parlor on Montauk, as well as Liberty Park, before they tore it down & built my I.S., 302. If you remember Liberty park, they you must remember Banner’s Candy, the restaurant on Liberty & Elton with the Pharmacy across the street, the chicken slaughterhouse on Elton between Liberty & Glenmore & the chinese laundry on Glenmore between Cleveland & Elton, where they’d starch & fold your shirts & bundle them in brown paper.
How about the bakery on Ashford & Liberty a block past Engine 225 near St. Michael’s schoolyard where we played softball like crazy? Then there was the Feast that went down Liberty Ave. & Abbraciemento’s Restaurant with the great pizza! If I’m remembering correctly, I recall a butcher shop on Pitkin between Cleveland & Elton, or perhaps Elton & Linwood. I do remember a beauty shop on the corner of Elton St on the north side of the street.
E.N.Y. was the kind of neighborhood where you could get just about anything that you wanted without ever leaving the neighborhood.
I remember when the KiNEEMA (that’s how we pronounced it) had “Dish Night”, where they’d give out dishes. This was around 1967/68. In it’s last days, it was managed by a man named Mr. Johnson. They sometimes held talent shows, but in a short time, it would finally close.
E.N.Y. was a great neighborhood to grow up in back in the 60s & even the 70s. Unfortunately things changed & though I don’t live far from there today, it breaks my heart to see what happened to my old neighborhood. It truly does!
The facade on the other Miller Theatre used to read “The Miller Capitol Theatre” & was located on Saratoga & ran the entire block from Dean to Pacific Streets. It housed a little store by the time that I moved down the block from it in Oct. 1969. after the owner of the store, Miss Fannie died in the early 70s, the building was taken over by the Afro Carting Company. As I think of it, the building survived into the late 90s, perhaps even the early 2000’s, before it was eventually razed. Today, pre-fab 2 family homes are on that site. I’ll post a link to some pictures as it stands today, as well as when the homes were being built around 2006 or so.
To indicate the condition of the former Miller-Capitol Theatre in the 1980s, NYC didn’t bother to photograph any part of this building. In fact, the only image that I’ve ever seen online, was when the Daily News covered the funeral of Yusef Hawkins in 1989.
Somewhere, there’s a picture of police snipers on the rooftops diagonally across the street from the church. In that shot, you can see a bit of the Dean Street entrance of the Miller Capitol.
You also can see a very brief shot of it in the 2020 HBO documentary, “Yusef Hawkins: Storm Over Brooklyn”, which I’m uploading.
There should be 2 changes made to this listing.
This theatre IS NOT in Bedford-Stuyvesant. It’s in Ocean-Hill. Bed-Stuy begins nearly a mile away, at Broadway.
The correct name of this theatre is indeed, the Miller-Capitol Theatre. I’m doing my best to locate a picture of it carved into the building. Unfortunately, as the theatre had been long-closed, no one who I knew thought to actually photograph it, much less the facade.
By the late 60s, it was pretty nondescript & carving aside, showed no internal remnants of having ever been a movie theatre. It was just another old building that contained a store of Pacific, a store on Dean, becoming the equivalent of an indoor junkyard by the mid-70s.
@Orlando, I live right down the block from here. You wouldn’t & couldn’t have seen an auditorium because by 1969, the Dean Street entrance was a country store & in 1939, the entrance on Pacific & Saratoga was a store called Herkimer Dairy & by 1969, was an egg carton facility owned by my neighbor, Cliff Huins.
No lobby has ever been visible & no storefronts existed since at least the mid 60s. The entire building was taken over by Afro Carting in the mid 70s, which went out of business shortly after the crack epidemic hit the neighborhood in 1986.
The building was abandoned & the entire structure wasn’t razed until 2003. For years, it sat there as an eyesore & a somewhat dangerous one. I took pictures when they began construction of the new homes in March 2004. I’m looking at them as I write this.
I’m not sure what you were thinking of, but no auditorium existed since the 60s. In fact, if you check the pictures of the Yusef Hawkins funeral, you may catch a glimpse of the building as we’ve known it from the late 60s - beyond. By the 1980s, interior of this building looked nothing like the 1940s tax ID Photo. The interior had been converted to retail use & all of the storefronts had been bricked-in in the 1960s.
Just wanted to add a couple of comments…The Pool Hall that wasmentioned survived into the 1980s. The diner survived into the new millenium. As for the former Mueller’s Hotel, when I was a young DJ in 1976, it contained an after-hours club named Arizona Barbara’s. It was a very popular spot, with strippers & all & in those crazy Disco days of the mid-to-late 70s, it had a large clientele & with the Transit Depot being right across the street,needless to say, it was very popular with the transit workers. After Arizona Barbara’s closed for the night, the folks would continue the partying at my club, Club Atlantis a few blocks away at Atlantic Avenue & Wyona Street.
Arizona Barbara’s closed down some time during the 1980s & became a welfare hotel/shelter.
I’ve corrected the street view. The former site of the Gotham had been a lot as far back as I can remember. At one point, from the 90s forward, it was a used car lot until the Imperial Hotel was built on its site a few years ago.
Tinseltoes, Precious little information is found about the theatre &most of the people whom lived here back then have either moved away long ago, or have passed on. The only thing that I can find in reference to it is that it catered to a Negro audience. I have also been saying how I remembered seeing “Miller Capitol Theatre” being engraved on the building. While searching theatres, I found this link to the theatre which shows that in 1921, an organ was shipped to the MILLERCapitol Theatre.
http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Bkln/html/CapitolTheatre.html
I have a great memory & knew that I wasn’t imagining it. I’ll keep digging to see what more I can find out. By the way, I have a picture that has been blown up, taken from Pacific Street showing the entrance on Pacific Street & Saratoga Avenue, which is close to the view which appears above. It’s pretty blurred, but it’s the best that I can do for now.
I found some information about the Globe. In April 1940, it became the Good Tidings Gospel Hall, where the congregation remained until 1983. Here’s a link to the website which has a couple of pictures from 1940 & the 1970s…
http://goodtidingsbrooklyn.org/5.html
Today, it’s the home of Christ Fellowship Baptist Church & you can see a picture of it today on their Facebook page…
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150780808250691&set=a.10150291450075691.564122.348848180690&type=1
I stand corrected. The “other” Miller Theatre was on Saratoga Ave between Bergen St & St. Marks Ave. in the middle of the block. By the time that I moved down the street in 1969 it was a supermarket. I was also confused because while everyone refers to the theatre a block & ½ away on Dean & Saratoga Ave. as the Capitol Theatre, I distinctly remember seeing the name “Miller Capitol Theatre” engraved on the facade above the entrance on Dean St. & Saratoga Ave. It was by then a store, but I distinctly remember seeing that name & I’ve always known it to be as such.
I have a correction to make due to not looking closely & confusing it with another nearby church. I live diagonally across the street from this building & indeed it is a church. When I moved here in 1969, this building was then a supermarket, for some reason, Associated comes to mind.
At that point, there was no decor which would’ve led me to believe that it had once been a theatre. However, whereas the building has been refaced, back then, the external facing indeed looked like that of many neighborhood movies minus the marquee.
I only wish that I had been old enough back then to understand the history that surrounded me, as well as the many theatres which still stood back then. And I wish that I had understood how drastically things would change & how many of those theatres & building would simply disappear in a relatively short period of time.
It’s next to impossible to find any pictures of these buildings & most of the old neighbors whom would’ve had them have either moved away decades ago or are dead.
Maybe someday…
I don’t understand the location as all three streets run from east to west & follow one another. Walking from North to South one would pass Fulton St., Hermkimer St. & Atlantic Ave, as the streets follow one another consecutively. What was the cross street where the theatre was located?
Here’s a link to the Carver/Howard when it was known as the Normandy Theatre on Fulton Street & Howard Avenue.
http://americanclassicimages.com/Default.aspx?tabid=141&txtSearch=brooklyn+&catpagesize=25&ProductID=30614
Fatman – Thank you for the look back at my old neighborhood! You have a picture of my family’s old house. One of the Glenmore Avenue pictures (Between Jerome & Warwick) is my family’s old house. The Mobil.Flying A station is on the N.W. corner & the old house is on the N.W. corner (it’s the one with the tire store on the ground level). I found the picture awhile back & blew it up a bit. Glenmore Hall was on the south side of Glenmore between Jerome & Warwick & was owned by a older slim man named Kenny. I’m a 60s baby, so by the time that I moved there immediately following the ‘65 blackout, things were already beginning to change. Fortunately, I did get to enjoy quite a few years there before things really went to pot. My mother & a few of her sisters & brothers went to JHS 64. I went to I.S. 302. I’d love to see a picture of the Packers Supermarket which was on Atlantic bet. Van Siclen & Hendrix, where the McDonald’s is located. I’ve forgotten what used to be on the site where they built I.S. 292. & would love to see that as well.
lostmemory – The Banco was on Fulton St. near Nostrand Ave.
The entire block hasn’t been razed, as the apartment building on the corner of Saratoga at the far right of the street view was there back then.
As with Saluki16, I grew up across the street from that poolroom & the candy store of which he speaks was run by The Clayton’s & we used to call the lady Ms. Estelle, which means that he lived in the building right next to mine, though I moved there in 1969.
This would be around the corner from The Capitol Theatre, but I remember when it was a store with the name “Miller Capitol Theatre” engraved into the brickface. I sure wish that I had thought to take a picture of it back then, but I was a kid, it was a general store, later convertedto the Afro Carting Company & I had no idea of the significance of it back then.
If this picture is accurate, then it was located on the Corner of Jamaica Avenue & what was then New York Boulevard. I believe that it is because in 1980, I became a DJ in that very building which became a skating rink named The Jamaica Rollerdome & the address was 92-07 new York Blvd (Now Guy Brewer Blvd).
After going up the steps on the 2nd floor, that was where the skate floor was located. In order to get to the DJ booth, I had to go to the far left & scale another flight of stairs which appeared to have once been a movie balcony.
Those who know the area will remember that N.Y. Blvd (Guy Brewer Blvd) cuts off at Jamaica Ave, where it became 163rd St. as you headed north toward Hillside Avenue. Diagonally across the street was Woolworth’s & in the late 70s, The Wiz was directly across the street on the S.W. corner.
Since the link won’t take, simply go to digitalgallery.nypl.org and search for Brooklyn: Pacific Street – Hopkinson Avenue After doing so, use the zoom function & soom all the way in & at the top of the picture you’ll be able to see the Pacific St. entrance of The Miller Capitol Theatre on the corner of Saratoga Avenue.
What in the world happened to the formatting?
Here’s the link again…
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=363591&imageID=706192F&total=68&num=0&word=Pacific%20street%20brooklyn%20new%20york&s=1¬word=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=15&e=w
gthe new building which is visible is on the opposite side of the street, across from where the Pacific St. entrance of the theatre would’ve been located, but by then been long bricked in. That entire building that you see across from the salon used to be an apartment building on the corner, several 3 family homes, a restaurant which was a fish & chips place, a liquor store & closest to Atlantic Avenue side, a store that sold knick-knacks & books. before that, the store sold used appliances. This would’ve been from the 60s through the 80s & early 90s. That building is kinda like a Home Depot, selling roofing supplies & the like. If you go to this link:
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeysearchdetail.cfm?trg=1&strucID=363591&imageID=706192F&total=68&num=0&word=Pacific%20street%20brooklyn%20new%20york&s=1¬word=&d=&c=&f=&k=0&lWord=&lField=&sScope=&sLevel=&sLabel=&imgs=20&pos=15&e=w.
And use the zoom function & zoom all the way out to the top-right of the picture, you can see the Pacific St. entrance of The Miller Capitol Theatre.
When I moved into the neighborhood in 1969, the building was still standing with the words “Miller Capitol Theatre inscribed on the outside about 2 stories up. By then, it had become a little grocery store owned by an elderly woman named Miss Fanny. After she died, the building was vacant, then taken over by The Afro Carting Co. After they went out of business, this building still stood, but during that time, the crack epidemic took hold passing that building became somewhat dangerous. Eventually, the building was razed & replaced by "affordable” 2-family housing. I’ll be uploading pictures for the site, both when they were building the new housing, as well as how it looks today.
I remember the ice cream parlor very well, it was right under the stairs of the Cleveland St. J train station. Being a 60s baby, I likely missed the glory days. But while attending P.S. 108, I had a classmate named Lorraine Von Thaden. By that time (mid-late 60s), her parents owned the ice cream parlor. I seem to remember a diner/restaurant a few doors down where I used to buy baseball cards & magazines.
@Tapeshare – I’ve visited your site & knew you a long time ago. I see that you have pictures of a few of my old classmates & one of my P.S. 108 punchball team mates named Tony Kachykalo. I haven’t seen him since we graduated in 1971, but I’ve never forgotten him. I still remember most of the kids whom I went to school with.
It’s amazing to think of the things that stay with you!
Personally, I miss the TSS which used to be there.
Purplehayes, I see that you’re about 10 years older than I, but I found quite a few pictures of the neighborhood on the net. When I locate the links, I’ll post them. Even found one of my grandparents old place, to where I moved following the 1965 blackout. Now what I’d REALLY love to see is a picture of Packers Supermarket on Atlantic between Hendrix & Van Siclen, where the McDonald’s now stands. I loved that supermarket & I wish that that neighborhood never changed. It was perfect for a young kid to grow up in.
And thank you for those wonderful pictures of Kays 5&10 & the appliance store. I sure wish that I could find one of Wing Shing!!! They really bring back some great memories. Does anyone remember a family by the name of Canapana? They lived around the corner from me on Warwick between Glenmore & Liberty. I remember their daughter named Ann Marie who became sick when we were children & became wheelchair bound. They lived two doors down from a family named the Ashers & right next door to a family named Douglas. I also seem to recall that they also had family on Essex between liberty & Glenmore, but I haven’t seen them in about 40 years. My family were The Baxters & before moving to Glenmore & Warwick, they lived on Elton between Glenmore & Liberty.
My grandmother lived on Glenmore & Warwick right across the street from the Flying A gas station. I moved there in 1965 & that neighborhood was great. First of all, we were black & all of us kids got along. Down the block between Warwick & Glenmore was a bar named Glenmore Hall & on the corner of Jerome was Joe Ragona’s store. His wife was named Mary & he had a daughter named Cathy.
I remember Kay’s 5 & 10 very well because when we didn’t go downtown or the “extension” on Pitkin Ave., we shopped there. I also remember the chinese restaurant across the street named Wing Shing & their food was great! I also remember the Appliance store across the street where we’d buy our records & doesn’t anyone remember Paladino’s on Pitkin & Elton where we’d buy icees & “punks” that we lit to light our firecrackers? I also remember the hardware store & laundry that were on Pitkin between Elton & Linwood Sts. They were on the opposite side of the street from Kays 5 & 10.
Also fondly remembered is the ice cream parlor on Montauk, as well as Liberty Park, before they tore it down & built my I.S., 302. If you remember Liberty park, they you must remember Banner’s Candy, the restaurant on Liberty & Elton with the Pharmacy across the street, the chicken slaughterhouse on Elton between Liberty & Glenmore & the chinese laundry on Glenmore between Cleveland & Elton, where they’d starch & fold your shirts & bundle them in brown paper.
How about the bakery on Ashford & Liberty a block past Engine 225 near St. Michael’s schoolyard where we played softball like crazy? Then there was the Feast that went down Liberty Ave. & Abbraciemento’s Restaurant with the great pizza! If I’m remembering correctly, I recall a butcher shop on Pitkin between Cleveland & Elton, or perhaps Elton & Linwood. I do remember a beauty shop on the corner of Elton St on the north side of the street.
E.N.Y. was the kind of neighborhood where you could get just about anything that you wanted without ever leaving the neighborhood.
I remember when the KiNEEMA (that’s how we pronounced it) had “Dish Night”, where they’d give out dishes. This was around 1967/68. In it’s last days, it was managed by a man named Mr. Johnson. They sometimes held talent shows, but in a short time, it would finally close.
E.N.Y. was a great neighborhood to grow up in back in the 60s & even the 70s. Unfortunately things changed & though I don’t live far from there today, it breaks my heart to see what happened to my old neighborhood. It truly does!
The facade on the other Miller Theatre used to read “The Miller Capitol Theatre” & was located on Saratoga & ran the entire block from Dean to Pacific Streets. It housed a little store by the time that I moved down the block from it in Oct. 1969. after the owner of the store, Miss Fannie died in the early 70s, the building was taken over by the Afro Carting Company. As I think of it, the building survived into the late 90s, perhaps even the early 2000’s, before it was eventually razed. Today, pre-fab 2 family homes are on that site. I’ll post a link to some pictures as it stands today, as well as when the homes were being built around 2006 or so.