Loew's Kings
1027 Flatbush Avenue
Brooklyn NY
This massive 3,192-seat French Renaissance theatre was designed by
Chicago architects Cornelius W. Rapp and George Leslie Rapp and opened
on September 7, 1929. The theatre was one of the five showcase
"Wonder Theatres" built by Loew's in New York City and
opened on the same day as the Loew's Paradise in the Bronx. The
theatre and the community began a slow decline in the 1950s, although
the theatre was never subdivided. The theatre closed and was
essentially locked and abandoned in 1977. When I visited in 2009 it was
owned by the Flatbush Redevelopment Corporation and, supposedly,
the interior was intact, minus vandalism and water damage. It is
difficult to imagine how the space could function as an integral,
profitable part of the community given the demographics of the
neighborhood and the venue's massive size. However, the theatre's
sister in the Bronx reopened in 2005 as a concert and special
events venue and, perhaps, there is some hope of a similar
fate for the Kings as well.
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