Imperial Theatre
157 Irving Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11237
157 Irving Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11237
3 people
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Showing 51 - 74 of 74 comments
Blondie10, this is interesting news. Do you think that the owner would be interested in selling – or leasing – this property to a group that could run the buildig for a theatrical purpose? A number of newly arrived Bushwick residents are involved in artistic pursuits and may be very interested in this site.
If the owner is responsive to this suggestion, please have him respond on this page.
Hi all, I know the owner of this building personally and it is currently for sale. It has been vacant for about 2 years now after being used as a knitting mill. I have been inside of it many times and a lot of the original details are still intacted. I believe the windows are original. On the mezzanine level, there are still the small windows that the movies were projected from. It is a beautiful, well-built building. I will try to take some pictures of the interior and post them on this board.
I don’t know what the Imperial is being used for, the building still looks pretty vacant.
Glad you found it, Bway !
Here’s a photo I took a couple weeks ago from the DeKalb Ave side of the old Imperial Theatre:
Click Here for Photo
Thanks, Warren. I didn’t know that the Imperial Theatre once showed German-made films.
I just came across a very recent picture of the Imperial. It was taken only a week or so ago. I will try to link it, though I’m not very experienced in doing this. Anyhow, this is the link.
www.flickr.com/photos/mtmont/2311192264/in/pool-bushwickbk
I wish we could come up with some historical photos of this building.
Yes, I noticed that the Imerial looked a lot better now than when I took my photo in 2004. One day I should take a current photo of it.
Woops, I meant it has been spared, not apared – whatever that means!
I had a few free hours yesterday and used the time to visit several old movie sites in Bushwick. Despite the fears expressed above, the Imperial is still very much intact and, in fact, appears to be in better shape than that depicted in the previous photo. It is probably being used as an active warehouse. The current entrances are locked with modern gates and the place is hardly falling apart. Interestingly enough, what had previously been a vacant lot to the right of the old theater is now occupied by a large – and very ugly – condo. So “progress” continues, but the old Imperial, for the time being, has been apared.
I worked in Bushwick, as the Community Board’s District Manager, during the 1970’s and had absolutely no idea that this building once was a movie theater. So this was all very interesting.
Also, does anyone remember when it closed as a Robert Hall store?
The boundaries between Bushwick and Ridgewood are very fluid and have a lot to do with the racial changes that occurred in Bushwick during the 60’s and 70’s. While I have seen maps that placed the border as far south as Wilson Ave. (unlike Congressman Crowley’s article, I never noted a Central Ave. boundary line) it gradually moved upward to the county line during those decades. This movement was underlined around 1980 when the 11237 zip code, which previously straddled the county line, was redistricted to end at the border.
While the 11237 zip code is officially named Wyckoff Heights, no one really refers to this as a distinct neighborhood. An effort to do this was actually made in the early 1980’s by persons who did not want to be associated with “troubled Bushwick”, and a few “Welcome to Wyckoff Heights” signs were installed on St. Nicholas and Cypress Avenues. But the name did not stick and the only memories of that attempt are the few remaining and rusting signs.
Thanks, Warren. My Uncle John saw the Lugosi “Dracula” at the Imperial as a kid, then got scared when he got locked out of his house (412 Harman Street) and had to wait outside on the front stoop, while it got darker and darker, until someone came home to let him in !
By the time he got out of military service after World War II, it had become a Robert Hall clothing store, so his next trip there was as an adult, to get some civilian clothing.
OK, Bway.
EVA LONGORIA IS HOT !!!
Well, I lost all contact with all the theater email notifications, and this was something I wanted to do for a while anyway, and to get back on the lists you have to post something in the theater sections, so it sort of kills two birds with one stone….
More some other day….
You’re obviously on a roll (pun intended) today with these aerial views !
Thanks, Bway !
Here’s an aerial view of the Imperial Theater:
View link
Thanks for the great shot of one of the big movie theater mysteries of my youth. I lived two blocks away on Hart Street and always wondered about it whenever I passed by it on my way to Knickerbocker Avenue. My dad, who’s now 89 years old once told me he saw “Mutiny on the Bounty” there, before it became Robert Halls. He always refered to it as the Irving, but now I’m sure he just mis-remembered.
Thanks again, Bway. What’s the direction of the photo ? I think we’re looking west at the corner of Irving and Stockholm.
Here’s a current view of the Imperial Theater taken yesterday.
Click Here for Link
The theater currently sits vacant awaiting it’s next use…or demolition. The building is not well cared for. There is much new construction going on in the neighborhood. It’s only a matter of time that “something” happens here.
Either RidgeWick or BushWood !
Ridgewood and Bushwick are merged in terms of some social services, such as ones for senior citizens. There is an office on the west side of Gates Avenue between Myrtle and Wyckoff Avenues. The zip was incorrectly given as “11327”. I always cringed when I saw it, and thought of the bureaucratic screw-up and personal misery it may have caused.
I get the feeling that Ridgewood would rather be associated with Glendale than Bushwick for social services.
OK, lost memory, thanks. It’s no big deal. I appreciate you wanting to avoid confusion between the two Imperial Theaters.
The address of the Imperial should appear as Brooklyn, N.Y. 11237. The Brooklyn neighborhood it is located in is known as Wyckoff Heights. It was a movie theater in 1932 but had become a Robert Hall clothing store by the mid-1940’s. My older uncle saw the Lugosi “Dracula” film there in 1931 or 1932.