Craft Theatre
4420 White Plains Road,
Bronx,
NY
10470
4420 White Plains Road,
Bronx,
NY
10470
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A brand new Family Dollar store has just opened on that block: Family Dollar #8656 4412 White Plains Rd. Bronx, NY 10470-1607 Phone: 718-231-2801
The storefront runs all the way to the empty space just south of the Craft Printers shop at 4432 WPR, and replaces the Bondi store seen on Google Maps.
If there was a theater there, it seems to have been remodeled/removed, as the store is rather deep and level.
Here is the Craft Theatre…my contribution to the archives….
In the 1940s I attended nearby St. Frances of Rome school. After school let out about 3:00 p.m. my friend and I would go to the Craft and give the cashier 25 cents for a ticket to go in and watch two pictures, a cartoon, a newsreel and coming attractions. Sometime in the 60s, I remember attending a wake of a friend and it was held at the funeral home that occupied the space of the former Craft Theater. That was the last time I was in the neighborhood.
I live in the neighborhood, but never ventured up White Plains Road past Nereid Avenue. (Between Nereid and 241st is light industrial and the subway train yard. Not much to see.)
That department store seems to be closed now. I’ll report back if I find out anything new.
If you roll down the street in the google street view just a bit to the left, you’ll see a series of steel roll down gates with a blue sign above reading “Bondi Department Store.” The former Craft Theatre entrance would have been where the widest roll down gate is, to the right of the Bondi sign. Looking at an overhead satellite image, the auditorium structure is still there, running parallel to White Plains Road, behind the Bondi Department Store facade. It is likely that the auditorium is being used by Bondi as part of their floorspace.
The street view should be corrected as I’ve described to get a better view of the former theater site, without the sun glare.
I just checked Google Maps. The Sun is in one’s face, so it’s hard to distinguish details. But I think the old building is gone, replaced by a one-floor storefront. Sad! “Craft Printing” is still located up the Road.
As a young boy in the 1940s, I lived at 243rd Street and White Plains Road, and I would go the Craft theater about twice a week and sit through the double features. I think the movies were changed every Wednesday. My mother would go to the Craft on “dish night” when the theater was packed because the patrons were given a dish or a cup. During the 1960s the facility became a funeral home, and I remember attending the wake of a friend of mine.
A ghost of the name survives. If one “Google Maps” the block on which the Craft once stood, and “strolls” northward a little way (to, roughly, 4450 White Plains Road), one discovers a little stand-apart shop called “Craft PRINTING”. The “Google Map” street-level photos here are dated 2008.
When I was a kid, during and right after World War II, there was a fascinating “war surplus” storefront just south of the Craft where kids could buy terrific militaria, like Marine Corps insignia and genuine Sergeant’s stripes. I suppose all the “war movies” we saw at the Craft helped business here.
Here is the updated link for the 1941 photo:
http://tinyurl.com/6qmokg
Here’s a local.live view looking at the back (or auditorium side wall) and proving that the Craft Theatre building itself is still very much in existence. This is the best view on local.live.com since the main facade and former entrance is obscured by the elevated train tracks on White Plains Road. A recon mission to the site is required to get a look at what remains of the theatre’s original facade elements and – if possible – interior design. I doubt it’ll be easy gaining access to the interior of a funeral home – particularly if there is a service going on. But perhaps the owners can be asked to advise if any of the interior was preserved in the conversion.