Renard Moving Picture Parlor

“This movie house opened in the fall of 1907 as the The Avenue, under the management of H. H. Lee. It was one of the first movie theaters for African Americans in Baltimore. Fred H. Carley changed the name to the Renard Moving Picture Parlor in 1908. It was usually called Renard until around 1915, but in one 1909 listing, it was called the No Name Theater. Apparently it was a storefront theater. Clinton J. Johnson operated it for several years. The Renard was advertised as the "only picture parlor conducted exclusively by colored people, every person (connected] therewith, from manager to operator being a member of the race. After the Renard closed, a large auditorium, the New Albert Hall, was built in the rear of the original structure.”

Source: Robert K. Headley, Motion Picture Exhibition in Baltimore: An Illustrated History and Directory of Theaters, 1895–2004 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), Page 212.

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