Laurelton Theatre

227-10 Merrick Boulevard,
Laurelton, NY 11413

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Showing 1 - 25 of 43 comments

archtypeman
archtypeman on May 20, 2013 at 3:43 pm

Thanks for the pictures,my Dad was a projectionist there……Ron Wendell

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on October 11, 2011 at 5:33 pm

Hey saps! Sorry I kept you hanging on the wire here! Ha ha. I actually did drive by the Laurelton, not too long after my last post, but without camera in hand. I can report, however, that the theater building is very much still standing. The renovations planned by the church seem to have been completed, with radical changes to the entrance facade and storefronts along Merrick Boulevard. I’m sure the lobby area has been completely remodelled as well, but I can’t confirm that. I’ll have to see if I’m able to get inside at some point and then allowed to take photos to update the batch I posted from early 2006.

Mike (saps)
Mike (saps) on October 11, 2011 at 3:21 pm

Awaiting your report, Ed…

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on July 7, 2011 at 9:11 pm

I guess the only way to find out for sure is to get down there for another visit. Will see if I can swing by either tomorrow or sometime next week.

Ross Melnick
Ross Melnick on July 7, 2011 at 5:26 pm

Yikes — those Street View shots don’t look promising …

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on July 7, 2011 at 4:07 pm

Can’t tell from the street view if the building is being gutted and/or demolished or if the congregation has finally been able to proceed with the expansion and renovations it was planning when I last visited several years back. I just added the photos I had previously posted from that visit – and in one of the shots, a model of the proposed construction is displayed in the former ticket lobby.

robboehm
robboehm on February 23, 2011 at 1:17 pm

It’s interesting, in its ads Century Theatres always referred to themselves as being on Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island. And by rights Brooklyn is Kings County, Manhattan is New York County and Staten Island is Richmond.

robboehm
robboehm on February 22, 2011 at 1:31 pm

Queens was always unique among the boroughs, and also, Nassau and Suffolk Counties were originally a part of Queens.

ChrisPlatt
ChrisPlatt on February 21, 2011 at 6:45 pm

To clarify only Queens town names are still used in postal addresses.

Chris

robboehm
robboehm on February 18, 2011 at 9:49 pm

Yes, Chris, this is unique. Sometime back when I was trying to find a theatre in Queens and looked for it by the community name I couldn’t find it. I then discovered many of the Queens theatres were listed as Queens and not by the town names. Some had the town and Queens which made the lookup difficult. I contacted the CT people and had all those corrected. The only one right now which is incorrect is the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria which was recently added including “Queens”. I notified CT but when last I checked they hadn’t done the update.

Staten Island also has community names. I guess I should check out CT references to Staten Island for correction.

ChrisPlatt
ChrisPlatt on February 18, 2011 at 9:39 pm

Yes and it should be noted that unique among NYC’s five Boroughs,
Queens retains all the old town names from prior to incorporation.

Chris

gd14lawn
gd14lawn on February 15, 2011 at 2:45 pm

Chris, I found a link to the photos in Lost Memory’s post of 8/18/08. The link brought me to the last photo of the set and you can move backward through them.

ChrisPlatt
ChrisPlatt on February 14, 2011 at 9:14 pm

I’d love to see those photos but they appaear to have been deleted.
I lived on 224th Street in Springfield Gardens from 1961 to about 1976.
The Laurelton was our neighborhood movie theater.
BTW who else remembers Zickerman’s Hardware?

Chris

gd14lawn
gd14lawn on October 23, 2010 at 11:05 pm

Where could I see Ed’s photos of the Laurelton?

Ed Miller
Ed Miller on May 27, 2010 at 8:56 pm

Ed Solero, I just looked at the album of beautiful photos that you took of the Laurelton in February of ‘06. Fabulous job, Ed, and let me say in all admiration that you are a true movie palace fanatic. How very gracious that congregation was to allow you to photograph it, and the pics brought back a flood of memories. That display I was talking about in my previous post was set up at the top of the lobby entrance slope. I’ve glimpsed at some of your other albums, and soon I’ll be examining them in detail. I lived in Sunnyside in the mid 70s, and it’s nice to see that the Center and Bliss are still standing, with the Bliss now being a Kingdom Hall. Thank God some of these grand old theaters have been given a second chance, instead of meeting the wrecker’s ball.
Ed Miller

Ed Miller
Ed Miller on May 27, 2010 at 8:36 pm

Ed, your post from September of ‘07 was very astute. Those blockbusters behaved in an outrageously unethical fashion. I haven’t a bigoted bone in my body, and I sincerely wish that all of our communities were racially balanced, but that is sadly not the case. In a matter of five years, and I do NOT exaggerate, Laurelton’s racial makeup changed completely, and I blame this on the white population that was terrified of having a black neighbor. I grew up in Valley Stream, just east of Laurelton, and my parents grew up in Springfield Gardens, just to the west, so I know from what I speak. That being said, let’s talk about the Laurelton Theater. My family church was one block south of the theater, and I had a lot of friends in Laurelton, as a kid and a young adult. Laurelton was a hot fifteen minute bike ride from home for me. I saw many, many a movie at the Laurelton, and I have to say that my best guess as to when it was built would be the early 30s, given the interior decor, which was an advanced Art Deco style strongly influenced by a Chinese motif, with the auditorium lighting a joss-house effect. This was a very small theater, with no balcony, and the restrooms were up a single staircase. You came to the ladies’ first, passed the projection room, and then there was the mens', which was quite small. I saw countless movies here, from “Imitation of Life” when I was eight, to “The Birds,” “West Side Story,” and many others. I can’t remember what movie that I saw in ‘58 when the small lobby was decorated for the next attraction, “Separate Tables”. Two small dining tables and chairs were on display, and the tables had complete place settings; the most novel detail was that there were place cards on the tables, on one for “Rita Hayworth” and “Burt Lancaster,” and on the other for “Deborah Kerr” and “David Niven”. Imagine seeing anything like that now! I checked the theater today on Google Maps, and I’m sad to say that the congregation that occupied it for years has gone, and the building has been gutted. Everytime that a part of my childhood is destroyed like this is like a piece of my heart being torn out.
Ed Miller

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 19, 2008 at 11:58 am

Thank you, Justmeez. I hope to read more of you on this site.

justmeez
justmeez on September 18, 2008 at 8:36 pm

Hi Peter, sorry AFAIK is abbreviation for “As Far As I Know”.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on September 18, 2008 at 12:10 pm

Welcome, Justmeez. Enjoy !

What is AFAIK an abbreviation for ?

justmeez
justmeez on September 18, 2008 at 9:35 am

All I can say is WOW. My family has lived next door to the Laurelton library since sometime in the 80’s AFAIK (only 20) and I had absolutely no idea about the history in the area. I stumbled upon this page out of complete randomness but I’m glad I did, thanks guys!

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 18, 2008 at 10:44 am

Thanks, Lost Memory.

PeterKoch
PeterKoch on August 18, 2008 at 10:28 am

Thanks for your post, Warren. Yet another old theatre has become a church.

PKoch
PKoch on September 25, 2007 at 2:29 pm

Noted, Ed. Thanks.

Ed Solero
Ed Solero on September 25, 2007 at 2:24 pm

You also see this entryway slope in many of the legitimate Broadway theatres.

PKoch
PKoch on September 25, 2007 at 2:11 pm

Thanks, Ed Solero. Your explanation makes sense.