Flower Theatre

Big plans to restore the facade to attract tenants. facade

Driving by the theater the other day, I noticed that a Spanish language Pentecostal church is renting out the place as of now. The second pair of glass doors is painted over with Spanish words, while the right pair is open. Maybe one day, I’ll take some pictures if I can see deep inside. :)

According to Friday’s, 8/3/12 edition of the Washington Post, there is a community meeting Sat, 8/4, to discuss the future of the theater and possible uses.

I’m thinking if it ever were to show movies again, aside from the necessary upgrades and ADA compliance, you’d have to have more then one screen here. Perhaps 3. The configuration could maybe support the main auditorium restored but capacity reduced from the original 800 to say, maybe 500. The crying rooms upstairs could be converted to the two additional screening rooms if they can be expanded to accomodate comfortable seating and larger screens.

I remember in high school going with friends to see the horror movie witchboard summer 1987 and i also remember going to see Prince concert movie sign of the times. LOL

I never knew the theater was that large in its original state. I only visited the venue as a twin as posted above. I notice the ‘flower’ design on the wall, hence the name! Looking back in that picture, there was at least one crying room. Interesting! Thanks for the picture link, Joe.

Just FYI. The immediate area has a Hispanic population. Further up Flower Ave going towards Silver Spring are more family oriented single-family folk. On the other end you have singles, couples and small families in rental units; apartments, duplexes, etc until you run into Columbia Union College, a Seventh-day Adventist run institution, with of course, college aged more conservative leaning, but are generally, an open minded group and then the SDA church, itself.

As you know, the AFI is in the next town over. While their programming is decent, they seem to run the same ‘classics’ every year. More 70mm would be nice, but I suspect the catalog availability would be scarce and would probably require the the theater restoration to that of a single screen, unless you twin the upstairs to a smaller screening-type room.

Good luck with your plans, as I hope they come to fruition. It would be nice to have more variety programming in films than Hollywood fare and the AFI.

301-656-3030. Thats the leasing company listed on the front. See if that works. What are your intentions to restoring it to show movies, again? Twin? Single?

Having driven by this place and, for the fact that the sign says for “lease”, its not “for sale.” Unless I’m missing something. Since my memories are only of its twinned operation, its hard for me to imagine it was ever larger than the Uptown in its original configuration. The ceiling seems too low for one, unless during the chopping process, portions of the useable area were quartered off some how. If its ever to come back, I suspect those unused spaces could become useable again. Maybe an upstairs exhibition auditorium or two? Vertically, I think it could be done..especially if there were crying rooms up there at one time.

Dang! Let’s try it again: 1, 2

Here and here are February 2008 photos of the Flower.

The church ahs closed and the Flower is available for lease as of January 2008.

Hmmmmm….

I went to the Majestic when it first opened and was not impressed. It was nice to be greeted as you entered but that’s about it. Yes, its a megaplex and there are some huge auditoriums but the two movies that I saw there were disappointing presentation wise and have never went back.

As for Juno, I want to check it out at the new Landmark in Balto. Supposedly, they’re running it in digital projection…maybe with the often talked about 4k projectors.

But back to the Flower, it is fondly remembered as I’ve said above.

I drove by the theater today and there’s a big FOR LEASE sign on the marquee. Perhaps someone with an interest may want to resurrect this place to at least a twin, if not single house movie theater again.