The Space at Westbury
250 Post Avenue,
Westbury,
NY
11590
250 Post Avenue,
Westbury,
NY
11590
5 people
favorited this theater
Showing 51 - 75 of 164 comments
The street view needs to be reset to just around the corner, someone clicked “update” on the side instead of the front. The marquee and everything is still there.
In response to Ed Solero’s 4/24 posting regarding the status of the theatre’s interior, I can verify that nothing remains of any interior architectural elements. The interior was sadly gutted right down to the brick walls a few years ago.
nice picture Ed!! love the marquee!
Here’s a vintage image dated circa late 1930’s, showing the original marquee and Tudor Revival facade. Marquee has no titles, announcing only “Current Feature Attractions.”
This image is from the Calderone Theatre collection of Hofstra University’s Library, digitized for the excellent Long Island Librarry Resources Council’s Long Island Memories website.
Click on the image to zoom in for detail. Change the area of detail by clicking on the smaller thumbnail image to move the “red box” around.
I wonder if the restoration plans include a return to the original facade?
Snapped this pic and that one late Friday afternoon on the way home with my cell phone.
Chatted up a worker who was standing by the fence. There was a bit of a language barrier, but I gathered from the discussion that the original interior of the theater will be restored and preserved. So I imagine that, while the roof is still partially opened to the weather, the major interior architectural elements must be protected somehow from exposure.
wher did the Midmer-Losh organ go I wonder? maybe my friend organized to tell,he got in once to see it. it was a very small unit from what I understand?
roof looks really good, Ipassed it on way to holy Rood cemetery yesterday,wish I had my camera with me!
Drove past the theater again on my way home last night. Roof work has progressed, but the interior is still exposed at either end of the auditorium – again, unless there is some protective covering below the roof-line that can’t be seen from street-level.
Aha. Thanks, rvb. I thought I read a comment or description above that the theater had a balcony and loge. That makes more sense. From what I understand, they are going to have a removable wall between the orchestra and the rear stadium section so that the rear would operate as a movie theater while the front (and larger) portion of the house would serve for stage performances. The wall would be removable to allow use of the full space for greater seating capacity as needed.
Great photos. I concur that it’s unlikely that any of the original architecture is likely to exist with all the exposure to the elements. I was only in the Westbury once, before it was twinned. As I recall there was no balcony. Just sort of a stadium seating along the lines of the Plainview. Hence, no exterior fire escape stairs.
I passed this theater tonight on the way home and grabbed some shots with my cell phone. Restoration appears to be definitely under way, if in early stages. Seems that the old roof has been completely removed and replaced with new steel beams and framework. Several panels of steel roofing are in place, but much of the sides (particularly along the northern exposure) are left open to the elements. I wonder if any of the original interior elements are to be preserved in the renovations? If so, what kind of condition are they in (considering how long there have been gaping holes in the old roof and that the new roof is incomplete). Certainly, the original plaster ceiling must be completely gone.
Anyway, here are the photos:
Long shot of southern exposure
Stage fly tower
Post Ave facade
Marquee and entrance
Marquee closeup
Alt view Post Ave
Southern exposure
Entrance doors
Peak at rubble inside front door
Office door?
Southern wall doors
Fire exit
It’s not so easy to see in that photo labeled “peak at rubble,” but this is a glimpse through a gap of the white-washing on the front doors at the rubble strewn floor just inside the entrance. Looks like there is much to clean up within this building and I really wonder what survives of the original architecture. Also hard to tell from the photo, but I could clearly see daylight at the gap above the doors in the one labeled “fire exit.”
No tell tale markings are evident on the side walls that would indicate there was ever an exterior fire escape for the balcony. I presume the stairs were located within the shell of the building protected by interior fire walls and ventilation?
Would love to see vintage interior photos, if anyone has them.
Long time since we’ve heard about these renovations. Also the Paramount in Huntington. They seemed to have stopped work on the Suffolk in Riverhead. The Islip plan fell through as did the Patchogue Plaza with the latter rumored to be demolished in May.
Good Luck.
Unfortunately, the video can only be seen if one registers and pays subscription fees.
“WESTBURY THEATER REMODELING GETS UNDER WAYâ€
[Reported by: T.C. McCarthy – Newsday, 22 October 2010]
Westbury village officials broke ground Friday on the renovation of the Westbury Theater on Post Avenue as part of an effort to revitalize the strip.
The project has been in the planning stages for the past six years since Lowe Properties bought the deteriorating theater building at auction for about $1.7 million. The Tudor-style theater built in 1927 will be remodeled into a performing arts theater.
“I saw many a movie here,†said Louis Corte, who was born in 1927, the year the theater was built. He is a lifelong resident of Westbury. “We have been waiting for the past 10 years, believe me it’s about time.â€
Jim Mollitor also grew up in Westbury. He said he had seen some of his first movies at the old theater, including “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.†Mollitor, who just purchased a business on Post Avenue, said “I’m very excited for the avenue, I think it could be a very positive thing.â€
Village Mayor Peter Cavallaro said part of the reason it took so long to break ground on the old theater was because of a concern that the village lacked adequate parking on Post Avenue.
“We took a creative approach,†he said, explaining that the village has two large parking lots that are little used at night. He said the village will lease the lots to the theater’s owner at night when shows are being put on.
Cavallaro expects the work to take about a year, and he sees a grand opening ceremony about this time next year.
“It’s been a long time coming,†said Bridget Zaino, another lifelong resident of Westbury.
Related Newsday video report: “GROUNDBREAKING FOR THEATER IN WESTBURYâ€
Hopefully, we’ll be seeing similar reports in the VERY near future for other Long Island theatre projects, such as the Paramount in Huntington.
If they want to restore this theatre I would think someone would close up the huge hole in the roof. I drove by today and the snow was blowing in.
Here’s an update of the ongoing Westbury Theatre saga from the Westbury Times:
View link
Here’s the Westbury Times' take on the situation:
View link
I’m glad they are finally going forward with this project…we need to save our historic theaters.
I’m very happy to hear that things are finally looking up for the Westbury Theatre. Sadly however, I moved out of Westbury nearly a year ago!
CHECK OUT TODAYS [ FEB 13TH] NEWSDAY..
In his recent memoir A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity, Bill O'Reilly writes that, when he was in the fifth grade, he went with the entire student body of the Catholic school he attended to see a movie at the Westbury. It was a revival of the 1943 The Song of Bernadette, for which Jennifer Jones had won the Academy Award.
He writes, “The thinking here was to use a Hollywood film to reinforce the Catholic faith. Since the movie jaunt got us out of math and English, the outing was fine with me.
“Unfortunately all plans can go awry, and this one proved that beyond a reasonable doubt. The turn-of-the-century theater had an extensive balcony from whence water balloons were launched just as the Virgin Mary was appearing to Jennifer. Pandemonium ensued; the sanctity of the occasion was lost.
“Clem and I denied any part in the sacrilege. One of us was lying.”
This is from Newsday, July 6, 2008
<<The Tudor-style Westbury Theater, built in 1927, has sat in poor repair for several years. But Mayor Ernest Strada said the village is working with the theater’s owner to overcome a major hurdle: parking.
He said the village hopes to seize land north and east of the theater through the eminent domain process and to allow the owner to build a parking lot there. Strada said he expects the theater to be restored within the next two years.>>
Still just sitting looks like nothing is going on.
When I moved to Westbury 13 years ago I liked the convenience of the “local” theater. They were never showing anything that interested me to go in UNTIL the 10th anniversary re-release of Star Wars came out which the Westbury theater was showing. I thought this would be a great opportunity for my 7 year old son to be introduced to this great epic. So, he and I went the following friday and went in to purchase our tickets. It was dead in the lobby but I didn’t think much of it. It looked like nothing in it had changed in 50 years (reminded me of the Old RKO theater in Flushing that I loved going to when I was younger). We purchased our tickets and then my son wanted popcorn which need to be popped. The old gentleman said not to worry that for us to go in and he’ll “bring” the popcorn to us. I thought how odd? How will he find me? Anyway I said fine and proceed into the theater to find my seat. Well, now I know how the old man was going to find us, we were the old two people in the theater! It was a bit creepy at first but then I felt like the king in his private old theater with freashly popped pop corn brought to our seats! I have never had service like that since. After the movie ended we proceeded to leave and past the old man at the ticket booth. Well he was obviously a movie buff because we wanted to talk and talk about Star wars! I was thinking, doesn’t he have a theater to run? Finally I just had to cut him off since my son was getting fidgety. This was my one and only visit to the Westbury theater shortly before it closed.