Towne Theatre
327 Washington Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
327 Washington Street,
Brooklyn,
NY
11201
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I posted a photo from the NYC Tax Photo archive project, 1939 to 1941. Unfortunately, it’s only one side of the theater and not clear, but this is to be expected after almost 80 years. These photos were digitized, and released in Nov. 2018.
Great picture TT. The whole streetscape is great, especially ths Nedicks, which was apparently situated right across the street from Brooklyn’s Borough Hall …… In looking at the great picture at the top of this page, you can date it to 1926 – or 1927 at the latest. The earlier date was the year when “Desert Valley” a silent oater about competing water rights and starring Buck Jones – one of my mother’s favorites – was released …….. Finally, Ed you are so right about the idiotic placement of the Towne on the street view. I guess when streets are radically altered, as was the case with Washington St.,the technology behind street view just cannot cope with the changes. (I have always wondered why the powers that be decided to rename the entire southern portion of Washington St. – named, after all, for one of our greatest Presidents – into the sterile Cadman Plaza East, especially since the location of the roadbed hardly changed. As it is, the only remaning portion of Washington St. is situated – at least until the development of Dumbo – in a desolate middle of nowhere.)
I know this block no longer exists, but the street view places the theater’s location right on the Manhattan Bridge lower roadway! If it could be managed, I’m sure a more suitable view would be from the point where Court Street becomes Cadman Plaza West, facing east across the park, just north of Borough Hall. Based on the pic posted above by johndereszewski, that would be a decent approximation.
Attached is the 1951 picture of the Towne that JF referred to in the previous comment. It was the subject of some recent discussion on the Tivoli Theatre page where I, for one, initially mistakenly identified it as the Tivoli. But it is definitely the Towne.
This photo provides a snapshot of a brief era that occurred after the Fulton St. el had been razed but before this whole community was demolished and converted into the extremely banal Brooklyn Civic Center, as best typified by the uniquely ugly Supreme Court building.
The Towne was also situated in the immediate vicinity of the old, and long forgotten, Brooklyn Eagle Building.
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The Towne was closed by January 1951, how much earlier I don’t know.I have a photo of the marquee from March 5, 1951 showing “Closed for Alterations” displayed with the letters i and o missing.
As of 1937 it was still the Crystal Theater. TRIANGLE 5-6651 was the phone number.