Eastown Theatre
8041 Harper Avenue,
Detroit,
MI
48213
8041 Harper Avenue,
Detroit,
MI
48213
8 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 46 comments
Video of demolition.
Demolition to begin today.
http://motorcitymuckraker.com/2015/11/19/city-of-detroit-to-demolish-once-venerable-eastown-theatre-as-early-as-today/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=socialnetwork
October 1st, 1931 grand opening ad in photo section.
Wow, so sad to see!
News report after collapse:
http://www.wxyz.com/news/region/detroit/dangerous-conditions-at-eastown-theatre
Apparently it was due to illegal scrappers.
So much for that:
http://www.adamjacobsphotography.com/blog/detroits-east-town-theatre
But then, realistically it was probably done for years ago.
Roof has collapsed!
This copy & paste link has a list of the Eastown concerts by year and month.
http://www.motorcitymusicarchives.com/eastowncal.html
I recently photographed the Eastown. Check out the images here.
Direct link to the above.
Hi All. Check out the footage I shot inside the Eastown on Oct. 9th, 2011. http://www.vimeo.com/30399224
Today I visited the Eastown with a friend. The theatre is wide open, and is easily accessible, though it does reside in a bit of a rough part of town. We took a chance and ventured in. Boy, what a sight! It’s in terrible shape, but has a very interesting aura to it. You can feel the space, and the people who went to it. I filmed a bunch of footage on my DSLR, and will cut together a piece to show.
Doesn’t look like there is anything there worth saving, unfortunately, its a gutted-out trash heap…
Flickr photos. The future does not look bright:
View link
I was fortunate enough to get to see the Eastown in Spring, 2009. Unfortunately I only got a few good pictures, have left my tripod in the car. In front of the stage were several filthy mattresses, used by the local junkies when they shot up. There were rooms in the basement I would have liked to have seen, but an ignored broken pipe was dumping gallons of water down there and it was already several feet deep.
Climbing the stairs backstage, we found the dressing room, costumes still hanging and some old props, all covered in mildew and mold. Inside the projectionist booth there were still bits of spliced film on the floor. The ornate decorations were crumbling, much of the plaster damaged by water, part of the ceiling in the upper balcony had caved in, and it was obvious that it was not long for the world. The pictures I did get can be seen here: View link
Great shot, SN. However, your picture of the auditorium of the United Artists brought tears to my eyes.
I was the photographer for that shot (as well as the entire book)
The Eastown is quite beautiful and definitely restorable (but sadly the neighborhood dooms it)
The apartment section is what burned in the fire and thanks to great building practices when it was built, the fire wall stopped any damage from occurring to the theater section.
A picture from “Lost Detroit: Stories Behind the Motor City’s Majestic Ruins” by Dan Austin: View link
It is sad, and Detroit has more than it’s share of problems, but the other side of the coin is that the economic doldrums that have hit my home town have also meant that a lot of elegant old buildings are here, unlike cities that have torn down and replaced their architectural history over and over.
These buildings are there, and are structurally sound for the most part. But they need some sort of economic catalyst to save them. Some sort of financially viable way to put them back to use. The Eastown is too far away from anything that’s near commercial redevelopment (or even on the radar for redevelopment) for it to have found a new existence, and the capital to refurbish and repurpose it.
It sounds and looks like that theatre was gone YEARS ago, sadly. Then again, from what I hear, that’s the general state of Detroit.
Another one gone that too bad.
The Eastown is almost gone as much of it was destroyed by fire yesterday. Pictures of the aftermath are at http://www.detroitfunk.com/?p=4634 Expect the entire building to be torn down.
Isn’t most all of “Detroit fallen down”.
Here is a photo of uncertain vintage:
http://tinyurl.com/ybjhxjr
It is very sad to see how this part of Detroit has fallen down. I grew up in this area and it was a thriving community then, now it looks like a war zone. Most of the landmarks that i knew are gone, i remember that on saturdays all the kids in the neighborhood headed to Harper and VanDyke to the movies either the Eastown or the VanDyke, which was a small theater just around the corner from the Eastown. The Eastown would show the newer movies and the VanDyke the older horror movies,and the VanDykes admission was 11cents, Eastown 25 cents. Does anybody else remember those days.