Ridgewood Theatre

Hi everyone…I had a club meeting to attend on Myrtle & Cypress Hills St. in Glendale last night. I took the opportunity to walk around some streets I had not been on in years. PeterK, my main goal was to check your old block out. What a nice block. I got off the L train and walked along Wyckoff Ave for the first time in decades. The last time I was in there may have been to go to the A&P, Budget Shoes or Lynn’s dress shop (for my sister!). I noticed sort of across the street from where the A&P used to be was an old industial type building dated 1897 in the masonary near the roof-could this remain from the brewery that once took up the block where the RKO Madison was eventually built??
PeterK, you grew up on a very nice block. My walk on Wyckoff was very noisy from traffic and loud Spanish music playing, but once I was about 100 feet onto Cornelia St. it was quiet and very well kept. I had spoken to my aunt about those 6 family houses where I mentioned my grandfather was born. She said if she was there she could pick the house, but she did not know the address. She confirmed my grandfather was born in that apt. in Jan of 1906 (I was off one year) and they were the original tenants in that building. His family lived on one side of the top floor, and my great-grandmother’s sister’s family lived across the hall. They lived there from about 1905 to 1935! The six family homes are the only ones that seem less maintained and bring the block down. I also noticed what a long block it is with no St. Nicholas Ave to split it into two blocks.
My great-grandmother had once told me a WWI story. Before the current bank/drug store building was built on Cypress Ave/Cornelia St. the buildings there looked like the other buildings on the block. I think she said there was a bank there called the Ridgewood National Bank and other stores. She said the local boys would congragate there on their way to the service. They would and say their goodbyes to family here and get picked up on their way to boot camp. She remembered the mothers and girlfriends crying as the boys left.
I caught a ride back to the L train and noticed the Ridgewood was not open last night, but is playing current movies (I distinctly remember the poster for Shaggy Dog).
Re: The Silver Dollar Club-My uncle belonged in the 1950’s and my dad used to go along. Basically it was a social club for members and friends. They had a regular band in a ballroom like setting, and had dances mostly on weekends. You got in for a small fee and could buy beer or setups, as well as soft drinks and light snacks. I think this was sort if a national organization and you could apply to form local branches After this location they moved to the second floor of 65-04 Myrtle Ave. In the mid 70’s the Catholic Kolping Society had bought this building and asked Silver Dollar Club to move. They moved to Dry Harbor Rd/80th St. right near St. John’s Cemetary. I believe they were evicted from this location in the 80’s and they worked a deal with the Kolping Society to be a regular tenant again on Myrtle Ave. This believe this group ceased to exist around 1980.(I only know all this because I belong to the Kolping Society).
Sorry to be so lenghty, but one more item. I have been asking people I know in Ridgewood about the new mall & theater at Atlas Terminals. I keep hearing that Myrtle Ave. is in no danger because this whole area is still pretty much working class and the new mall will feature high end stores. My family and friends in the area feel that the new mall will mostly pull from higher end areas like Austin St. Time will tell how this all plays out.
My best wishes to everyone…Billy C.

I not really sure but Hank’s was on the second floor and the club was on the third. There was a sign on the door. I know they held dances there because I remember my Mom going there when I was young.

Thanks, SteveD. What was the Silver Dollar Club ?

Sorry for the duplicate posts. Haste makes waste.

That photo of the yellow and orange brick six-family houses on Palmetto Street, showing the July 4, 1914 holiday celebration, on Christina Wilkinson’s website on Ridgewood, confirms that Ridgewood was growing and developing as early as 1905 to 1915.

The Parthenon was a bowling alley, Parthenon Lanes, perhaps as soon as the fall of 1960, but definitely by the fall of 1961. I remember going in there with my mom after lunch at Koletty’s on school days.

Thanks for the answer of my house being a Stier house.

Yes, mrbillyc, there are about half a dozen six family homes on the same side of Cornelia Street, the northwest side, opposite my old house, as the former Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust bank.

I think the RKO Madison showed its last film around Halloween 1977. By late February 1978 it was a derelict hulk with a sign in front which read :

THIS IS HOW YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD STARTS TO DECAY !
IF THIS BOTHERS YOU, CALL (212) …..

Yes, I have seen that Christina Wilkinson website on Ridgewood. I submitted comments and corrections to her on 1 August 2005 that she has yet to incorporate.

Peter K-I goofed. I did mean Cornelia St. I have not been on this block in years, but aren’t there a few six family homes on the same side of the street as the former Manufacturer’s Hanover bank? I recall later photos that were taken on the roof of that 6 family where you could see the water tower of the RKO Madison behind my posed relatives. Sorry for my confusion.
Being a child in a six family house in the 60’s I always thought those who were in a 2 family like yours Peter, were ‘rich’ compared to us! I now know better…
And Lost Memory, let’s not forget the Evergreen Theater on Seneca and Myrtle Ave which closed in the 20’s!

I grew up in and lived at 1668 Cornelia Street, between Wyckoff and Cypress Avenues. It is a two-family orange brick house with brownstone stoop and brown sandstone trim, and pressed metal cornice.
Five rooms on the first floor, six on the second. The curved front has two windows on each floor facing Cornelia Street.

Given the above, can you tell me who designed and built my house ? I’ve always wanted to know. Thank you.

Lost Memory-you must have lived on Linden St. between Cypress Ave & St. Nicholas Ave, up the street from St. Brigid Church. I knew a family on that block in one of those 3 family homes with the bow window on the front and the back. I have always found it fascinating how quickly this area was built up once the trains were extended to Lutheran Cemetary. Those are the most solidly built homes you will ever find. I have family ties in the Brooklyn end of the neighborhood that go back to about 1880 on my mom’s side when the Queens end was almost all farmland with unpaved roads.
And the Ridgewood Theater plays a role in my personal family history as I described in my post of Aug 12, 2005-(My dad & stepmom will celebrate their 40th anniversary on April 18)…Billy C.

Hi everyone. That opening date of Dec 1916 sound very reasonable to me. I have always been interested in the history, development and architecture of my old neighborhood. I beg to differ slightly with Peter’s statement that Ridgewood only began booming and thriving after WW I ended in 1918; I believe most of the Ridgewood we know today went up from about 1905-1915. Here are a few items I base this on:
1. My maternal grandfather was born in a six family brick house on Jefferson Ave. near Cypress Ave in 1905 (Peter’s childhood block. My great- grandmother (his mother) always said they were the first tenants in that house when it was brand new, so I presume it was built prior to January 1905.
2. My childhood home at 17-13 Woodbine St. was built in 1911-1912. The builder Bauer & Stier put up most (not all) of the row houses within these boundaries: from Linden St on the north, Seneca Ave on the west, Putnam Ave on the south, and St. Nicholas Ave on the west at this time. The ‘dummy tracks’ were elevated shortly after this part of the neighborhood was built, around 1914.
3. My paternal grandparents bought two six family homes at 930 & 932 Seneca Ave (next to the Evergreen Theater) around 1919 and were the second owners. Our family always thought those buildings went up around 1912-13.
4. On the other side of the neighborhood, my dad now lives on DeKalb Ave between Onderdonk & Woodward in a two family erected in 1912.
5. I used to own a two family home at 1873 Stockholm St. and that beautiful street of two family bay window/porch homes went up in 1910.
Does anyone know when the Gustave Matthews ‘model flats’ went up and developed that neighborhood around St. Matthias church with dozens of six family homes?
I really believe that by 1916 there was more than enough population here for a grand theater like the Ridgewood to survive. I think by 1918 the builders had moved to ‘upper’ Ridgewood and Glendale where there was still a bit of vacant land.
Thanks for keeping this dialogue running-I truly enjoy it! Billy C.

The seating capacity probably decreased as they kept cutting the theater up. I am not sure if the 1950 is the current seating. But of course, the walls all through the theater cutting it up into a 5 plex have taken away seating from the original number.
The 1673 Myrtle Ave number is before the Queens section of Myrtle Ave was brought into the Queens numbering system, as of course, regardless of how the Ridgewood (or Madison) Theaters were listed, are physically in Queens, and always have been.

Lost Memory;
The Ridgewood Theatre is not listed in the American Motion Picture Directory – 1914-1915.

Thanks, Lost Memory ! I didn’t know I was Elvis.

I can’t speak elvish, as in “The Lord Of Those Things” trilogy.

Can I hire you as my publicist ? Will you work at scale ?

East Coast Rocker, I usually succeed without trying too hard. Now that we know Bway and I are nothing odd in NYC, back to the Ridgewood Theater …