Loew's Pitkin Theatre
1501 Pitkin Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11212
1501 Pitkin Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11212
19 people
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An ad for the Pitkin’s first New Year’s Eve presentation in 1929 can be viewed here
Correcting myself… the Palace opened in 1915, forgive typo in last post
Overview should be changed to “closed in November 1971 with the final film being "SHAFT” and “THE SPLIT” with Jim Brown". Late sixties can be construed to any date after January 1968. The Palace which opened in 1925 closed in 1969/70 making it the longest in business. The Palace played “Planet Of The Apes” in ‘68 and “The Detective” in late '69 listed in NY Post Movie Guide in November, just to set the record straight as true as it can be. Please. please change the Overview. It also makes Cinema Treasures professional with facts updated when they are really incorrect.
Of course it went South, the neighborhood changed. Anyone see a pattern? The Pitkin was a great theatre when my Mom was growing up in the 40’s, it’s a ghetto now.
Loews Pitkin building recently sold for $53M. http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2018/2/7/revamped-loews-pitkin-movie-theater-brownsville-treasure
Thanks Luis. I was only trying to envision how they reused all that space in the building, and if it was an effective redesign. I’m sure none of the interior was saved. It was junk at the end.
I don’t believe any of the interior survived, only the exterior.
When they turned it into a school did they incorporate a gymnasium in there someplace? If they did I’m sure they didn’t save any of the interior. I’m just interested in how they might have fit it into the new design.
It doesn’t look any worse than the Loew’s King does in pictures I’ve seen. To gut the inside is hardly restoration, the inside was the most of these theaters.
I recall seeing movies here as a kid, Gi GI was one my grandmother brought me to. The ceiling sky fascinated me.
What made the “wonder theaters” like the King different than Pitkin?
For all you fans who frequented Brownsville’s theaters I am pleased to announce the release of Brooklyn’s Historic Brownsville, a 228-page hardcover photographic history of Brownsville including images of the Pitkin, Sutter, Ambassador, Stone and others, as well as the schools, synagogues and institutions that were the heart of this neighborhood. For more details visit www.tapeshare.com/BrownsvilleBook.html
My grandparents, Harry and Sadie Linden, owned the candy store across the street under th elevated trains. I spent my early childhood there.
The total was a shambles, I don’t know how much was left to restore after the water damage. There were literally hundreds of holes in the roof. I have to say, while it’s sad it can no longer be a theater anymore, they did an absolutely FANTASTIC job with the exterior conversion and restoration. The exterior shell is better than total demolition, so a piece of history is in fact preserved.
I didn’t think anything was being restored. Pretty sure they gutted the building completely.
Nothing I’ve read about the conversion explains which areas of the theatre were restored and which were destroyed. Can someone elaborate on this? I’m guessing the auditorium was leveled, or gutted. Were some of the lobby and foyer spaces saved and restored? I see that the main facade was preserved.
Bobby S: Enlarge each Google map accompanying each theater on the respective pages; if you use the Prospect Park Parade Ground as a point of reference, you will see that they were not all that close to each other; as you noted, Brooklyn is pretty big.
Actually, the big downtown palaces fared reasonably well in the Depression, due to the relatively inexpensive tickets and did well into the 1940’s, though architectural tastes changed, and combination programs of live acts and movie programming became less frequent, eliminating the need for elaborate, fully-equipped stages. Yes, some chain owners like William Fox went bankrupt and some theaters did close and fewer were built.
But there were three major factors that really doomed both the existing and any planned palaces, and all of them occurred after the Great Depression: the 1948 Paramount Consent Decree that forced the major studios to divest themselves of their theater chains, the coming of television, and the exodus of so many people to the suburbs. There was, especially in the 1960’s a relatively brief flowering of large, single screen theaters that might be regarded as sort of second generation palaces, but the arrival of multiplexes eventually doomed many of these or resulted in their being subdivided, in many cases atrociously.
How far was the Loew’s Pitkin to Loew’s Kings? I didn’t realize Brooklyn was so large. 1929 was sure an important year for the Loew’s chain wasn’t it? If only they could see the depression around the corner, these pleasure palaces might never have been built.
From NY.Curbed.com Thursday, September 6, 2012, by Jessica Dailey
When we visited the Loew’s Pitkin Theater in 2010, the movie palace, closed for 40 years, was falling apart and pretty creepy-looking. But no more! POKO Partners sent along a press release announcing the completion of their $43 million adaptive reuse of the structure, transforming the historic ruins into a mixed-used building featuring a charter school and retail space. Brownsville Ascend Charter School occupies 130,000-square-feet on seven of the building’s eight floors, with a discount store anchoring the street-level retail space along Pitkin Avenue.
The renovation, lead by architecture firm Kitchen & Associates, restored the historic building’s exterior neo-classical and Art Deco features while retrofitting the interior to accommodate the school. Along with classrooms for K-12 students, the school has a gymnasium, auditorium, science labs, and art rooms. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be held next Thursday, September 13.
I lived across the street from the Loew’s Pitkin. 1947 until 1963. Fond memories of saturday movies. 5 cartoons, a serial and a “double” feature. I even got to see Jerry lewis live on stage. the ceiling used to have stars and a moon that would slowly cross from one side to the other. Looking back, the theater was the most beautiful of theaters I have ever seen…to this day. It’s a shame to hear how run-down it has become.
Marcus Loew was born on this date in 1870.
Thanks again Brad.
This photograph of the Loew’s Pitkin Theatre was taken in 1930 by George Mann of the comedy dance team, Barto and Mann.
At least the Loews Pitkin building will become a school,they could tear the building down all together,I think it would be nice for me to go to a school that was once a movie palace.Large movie houses have always been “Creepy” in a good way.
that new york one report made me sick looking at my old friend in such poor condition&what do they mean “creepy old movie palace? what idiots! i’d like to see how their house would look if it fell into disrepair!! as you see i’m very sentimental about my PITKIN THEATRE!
my memories are of the sign outsideduring the summer saying how cool it was inside&boy was it cool!!,what a beautiful building to be cool and watch the latest Jerry Lewis movie, what a sin its present condition
Thanks for your memories peegirl.