The Belmont was an incredible place. It stood at 21st Avenue South and Blakemeore in Hillsboro Village. It’s architecture was Spanish / Moorish. As I recall, it’s lobby was rather small. The auditorium had rwo balconies. When a movie started, one set of curtains parted, another set raised up, then a third set parted. It was very theatrical.
I imagine it was Nashville’s first ‘suburban’ theater, located a couple of miles south of downtown. At the time of its construction in 1925, the area around Vanderbilt Univeristy was a real estate ‘hot spot’.
I’ve always been saddened by its demolition in the early 1960s. It was replaced by a hideously ugly office building.
I think this was the first theater built by the Sudekem brothers, who later went on to control the movie theater businesss in Nashville.
How interesting, J. Dougherty! Just the other day I was reading a book I own, “Philadelphia Theaters: A Pictorial Architectural History” by Irwin R. Glazer [Dover Publications, 1994]. Nine pages are devoted to the Mastbaum.
That such a monumental structure could last just three decades is amazing. By 1958, though, with the advent of television, Urban Renewal and white flight to the suburbs, I am sure it was economically unfeasible. If only it could have stood forlorn and abandoned until the 1980’s, when the sense of preserving the past became more acute, it might have been restored. If that had happened, it would stand today as one of Philly’s grandest and most beloved structures.
I wondered aloud to a friend the other day what happens to all the stuff from these old theaters. Mastbaum had bronze doors and staricases of Tuscan marble. Much of the artwork was purchased from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The sub-basement [originally planned as a restaurant but never used for that purpose] was used to store artifacts from other theaters which had been torn down. These included consoles from over 40 theater organs. Now, at least I know what happened to one of the chandaliers from the Mastbaum.
The Belmont was an incredible place. It stood at 21st Avenue South and Blakemeore in Hillsboro Village. It’s architecture was Spanish / Moorish. As I recall, it’s lobby was rather small. The auditorium had rwo balconies. When a movie started, one set of curtains parted, another set raised up, then a third set parted. It was very theatrical.
I imagine it was Nashville’s first ‘suburban’ theater, located a couple of miles south of downtown. At the time of its construction in 1925, the area around Vanderbilt Univeristy was a real estate ‘hot spot’.
I’ve always been saddened by its demolition in the early 1960s. It was replaced by a hideously ugly office building.
I think this was the first theater built by the Sudekem brothers, who later went on to control the movie theater businesss in Nashville.
How interesting, J. Dougherty! Just the other day I was reading a book I own, “Philadelphia Theaters: A Pictorial Architectural History” by Irwin R. Glazer [Dover Publications, 1994]. Nine pages are devoted to the Mastbaum.
That such a monumental structure could last just three decades is amazing. By 1958, though, with the advent of television, Urban Renewal and white flight to the suburbs, I am sure it was economically unfeasible. If only it could have stood forlorn and abandoned until the 1980’s, when the sense of preserving the past became more acute, it might have been restored. If that had happened, it would stand today as one of Philly’s grandest and most beloved structures.
I wondered aloud to a friend the other day what happens to all the stuff from these old theaters. Mastbaum had bronze doors and staricases of Tuscan marble. Much of the artwork was purchased from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The sub-basement [originally planned as a restaurant but never used for that purpose] was used to store artifacts from other theaters which had been torn down. These included consoles from over 40 theater organs. Now, at least I know what happened to one of the chandaliers from the Mastbaum.