Colonial Theatre

1746 Broadway,
Brooklyn, NY 11233

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Showing 176 - 198 of 198 comments

Bway
Bway on October 28, 2004 at 12:42 am

Lou, that church you are talking about is I believe “Our Lady of Lourdes” RC Church. According to something Peter read, he said that the church was torn down because of some kind of “interference” with planes or something. It sounds ridiculous, but then again, anything is possible. What a shame.
Yes, Bushwick is finally “coming back”. There is lots of life being pumped back in to that neighborhood. I believe Bedford-Stuyvesant is a little further along in “gentrification”, however, Bushwick isn’t far behind it. Both areas really are stating to look quite sharp campared to what they were like in the 70’s and 80’s. They still have a ways to go, but there is a very bright light at the end of the tunnel….finally.

romerol
romerol on October 28, 2004 at 12:26 am

Thanks for your memories Peter, some of those neighborhoods bring
back good memories. I remember a church on Pilling St. between
Broadway and Bushwick, I think it was catholic.
I would say that the blight began somewhat in the early 70’s.
The neglect was shaping in, many of the businesses that began
around the 50’s and 60' where shutting down and of course the
“white flight” was ending its exodus (not trying to be facetious).
By then it was all black and hispanic. I moved to East Flatbush
in 75' then Midwood in the 80' where I remembered the Kingsway
.In the 90’s Upper Ridgewood, Carmel, NY and now temporary in
Williamsburgh, where I found what used to be a theatre off Broadway
and Havemeyer called the Aster.
After the blackout in 77, Bushwick went downhill for about 20 years.
It is now resurging with new homes, yuppies and immigrants.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on October 27, 2004 at 9:54 pm

You’re welcome, Lou Rom. Although I was born in Bushwick, I never really lived there. I lived in Ridgewood, on Cornelia, between Cypress and Wyckoff, from my birth date until September 1991. Up until September 1968 I used the Irving Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, at Irving and Madison, then started using the Ridgewood library. I took walks with my Dad in Irving Square Park until September 1967.

My Dad was born in Bushwick, near Putnam and Howard, and lived first there, then at Evergreen and Moffat, 1070 Decatur, the 700 block of Chauncey Street, on Moffat between Central and Evergreen, and finally 1454 Bushwick between Chauncey and Pilling. Then he got married. For awhile he and my mom lived on Weirfield between Knickerbocker and Wilson, across the street from Irving Square Park. Then they bought their home on Cornelia Street, moved in, and then I was born.

My dad remembers seeing the Karloff “Frankenstein” at the Colonial as a boy of 12 when it first came out.

When I hear Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” I get this feeling of being safe in my dad’s parents' home, either 1454 Bushwick or the 700 block of Chauncey Street.

I still enjoy riding the 14th Street Canarsie Line between Halsey St. and Bway Junction and looking out over Bushwick and the cemeteries. My mother’s parents are buried in Most Holy Trinity Cemetery.

Do you consider the urban blight to be the arson and looting that started during the July 13 1977 blackout or sometime before that ?

romerol
romerol on October 27, 2004 at 9:34 pm

Thanks Peter K., I’m sold on that information.
How long where you in Bushwick and what was your
fondest memories.
I first lived on Schaffer bet. Bushwick and B'way,
then my last years where on Weirfield St Cent/Eveg.
And I moved away in 75' before the urban blight.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on October 27, 2004 at 9:27 pm

I was born on Chauncey Street, between Bushwick Avenue and Broadway, in mid-November 1955.

Chauncey Street’s southern end is at Fulton Street in Brooklyn postal zone 33, Stuyvesant. It then runs approximately east northeast from Fulton Street to Broadway, turns to northeast in crossing Broadway, and ends at Central Avenue, three long blocks northeast of Broadway, in Brooklyn postal zone 7, East New York. I have always thought of that end of Chauncey Street as being in Bushwick, even though Bushwick, postal zone 21, is a few blocks away to the northwest.

It is easy to argue neighborhood boundaries and get confused because they are vague. The separate towns that the neighborhoods once were have merged into each other and no longer officially exist. Postal zone boundaries are definite but do not necessarily agree with the common understanding of the boundaries of some neighborhoods, as noted above.

romerol
romerol on October 27, 2004 at 9:02 pm

Not to add to the confusion of geography, as a child of
Bushwick during the 60'/70', I always thought that Chauncey
St belonged to either Bushwick or Bed/Stuy.
You guys have great memories, I’ve always known that bldg
as a church.
Does anyone know when the Colonial finally closed.

Bway
Bway on October 24, 2004 at 7:46 pm

As is the Broadway in my screen name….
Do you know if the theater became a church right after it closed as a theater in 1954, or did it sit empty and abandoned for some years before becoming a church? When did it become a church?

deleted user
[Deleted] on October 24, 2004 at 7:40 pm

The B'way Colonial as it is sometimes referred to opened in 1929 and closed in 1954. The B'way is in reference to Broadway in Brooklyn.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 1, 2004 at 11:09 pm

No, I am not. I think you have confused me with the Peter J. Koch, known by lostmemory, from Grover Cleveland High School.

CGohari
CGohari on September 1, 2004 at 11:04 pm

Yes, I have, thank you.
Are you the same Peter Koch who is the local contact for the Grover Cleveland High School Open House being held Sept. 18?
I just now received an e-mail with the name of Peter Koch & a tel. #.
I used to work there, recently retired, and am trying to help spread the word.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 1, 2004 at 7:35 pm

You’re welcome. Have you checked out the page for it on this site ?

CGohari
CGohari on September 1, 2004 at 6:45 pm

Thank you, Peter K., for the information about the DeKalb/Casino Theater.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 30, 2004 at 8:00 pm

I don’t know. The one theater I know of between Broadway and Bushwick Avenue on DeKalb Avenue is the DeKalb Theatre, 1153-55 DeKalb Avenue, later re-named the New Casino Theater, new because the original Casino Theater was at Flatbush Avenue and State Street in downtown Bklyn. There is a page for the DeKalb / Casino on this site.

CGohari
CGohari on August 30, 2004 at 7:55 pm

Was this the only location of the Colonial Theater? I found a distant relative in the 1918 WW I Draft Registration: Brooklyn, NY, 13 Sep, Division 71, #2334/A 861, 31-9-71-C, Alonzo Addison Turner, Address: 1152 DeKalb, Bklyn, Kings, NY;Asst. Manager, Colonial Theater, 1158 DeKalb Ave, Bklyn, Kings, NY. [between Broadway & Bushwick Ave.]
He is also listed as a theater manager in the 1920 (living 1152 Dekalb) & 1930 (living 581 Decatur) Kings Co. Census. Name of theater not in census.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 26, 2004 at 4:32 pm

Thanks, Bway, I’ll read about the Evergeen on the Ridgewood page of this site.

Glad you liked my fire escape story about the Colonial. Yes, it is so “old Brooklyn”, like a Neil Simon play.

Bway
Bway on August 26, 2004 at 4:00 pm

Yeah, I always use the Brooklyn line as the Ridgewood-Bushwick border too. I think the whole “confusion” dates back to when Ridgewood was serviced through the Brooklyn Post office, even though in Queens. It’s also what allowed (thankfully) Ridgewood to retain many of it’s old streetnames in Queens, even though Queens went to the numbering system.

I love your story about the fire escapes and the outdoor Colonial theater. That’s so “Old Brooklyn”. It’s great.
BTW, that reminds me, did you see that lostmemory and I finally solved the mystery of the theater and open air theater at Seneca and Myrtle (where the CTown is now) in the Ridgewood section? It was called the “Evergreen”. I was planning to add it to the site, but didn’t get the time.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 26, 2004 at 3:49 pm

Bway, I will continue to use the Brooklyn-Queens border as tbe Bushwick-Ridgewood border, until someone proves to me I should do otherwise.

I tend to think of Broadway as the boundary between Bushwick to the northeast, and Bed-Stuy, Brownsville, East New York, and Broadway Junction to the southwest, although the 21 Bushwick postal zone extends southwest past Broadway, and the RKO Bushwick theater itself
is on the southwest side of Broadway.

Warren, I seem to recall you posting information about the chronology of the Colonial Theater on a page for another theater, but I can’t seem to find it. I would appreciate you posting this info on the Colonial Theater page if you can find it. Thanks.

Warren, the only thing I’ve read about Bushwick theaters drawing their patronage from Ridgewood, was in an “Our Neighborhood” installment of the Times Newsweekly, about a year ago, which mentioned people in 1951 going to see “Quo Vadis” at Loew’s Gates in Bushwick, instead of at the Belvedere on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale.

My father recalls the Colonial’s outdoor summer cinema drawing its “patronage” from people watching the films free from the exterior fire escapes of their homes, near the intersection of Rockaway Avenue and Chauncey Street.

Bway
Bway on August 26, 2004 at 12:18 am

I agree. While I am not clear if the Chauncey St station is in Bed-Stuy, Bushwick, or East New York, it’s certainly not Ridgewood. As for the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, people generally use the Queens-Brooklyn line as the divider, although I don’t know if that is technically correct.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 25, 2004 at 9:57 pm

Warren, thanks for checking the Brooklyn Eagle, and posting a comment on what you’ve read.

Neighborhood boundaries are vague. A friend of an e-friend of mine lived at Evergreen and Greene Avenues, clearly in Bushwick, until 1969, yet he always referred to where he lived as Ridgewood. The Colonial Theater is on the boundary between the Stuyvesant (33) and East New York (7) postal zones of Brooklyn. I tend to think of it as between the neighborhoods of Bushwick and East New York, or Broadway Junction, not on the Ridgewood-Bushwick border, which, to me, is part of the Brooklyn-Queens border.

I’m not sure where the Colonial drew its patronage from.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 19, 2004 at 7:52 pm

The roofline of the Colonial Theater at 1746 Broadway, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY is also visible in these images near the vanishing point :

http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26237
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26236
http://www.nycsubway.org/perl/show?26417

In image 26237 the roofline of the Colonial is visible between the top of the front of the train and the “square head and shoulders” apt. bldgs in the distance. It appears below these two apt. bldgs. in the other two images.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 19, 2004 at 7:49 pm

The Colonial is used as an evangelical church. Much of the interior is still intact, but re-decorated in different colors from the original, which was nothing to get very excited over. It was always just a plain, neighborhood theatre, originally built by the S&S Circuit (Small & Strausberg), which was later acquired by William Fox and eventually spun into the Randforce Circuit. The Colonial was situated at 1746 Broadway and had 2,222 seats, according to the 1944 Film Daily Year Book, which I believe is a bit exaggerated. I would guess 2,000 at most.

posted by Warren on May 12, 2004 at 4:26pm

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 19, 2004 at 7:46 pm

Thank you, Bway ! I’m expecting Warren to add material of his on the Colonial, already posted on pages of the RKO Bushwick and other nearby theatres, on this site.

Bway
Bway on August 19, 2004 at 6:51 pm

And here’s a link to a current view of the Wayside Baptist Church, once the Colonial Theater….as requested in the Magestic’s section.
The theater is right under the Chauncey Street station on the Broadway El.
Colonial Theater Photo