Flatbush Pavilion, 1981

Many thanks to faithful reader "LGR," who brings our attention to a 1981 photograph of the Flatbush Pavilion (a.k.a. Cinema Plaza):

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - 1981
photo: American Classic Images

It is instructive to note the condition of the marquee in 1981, above, compared to the recent views below. All the detailing seems to have been shaved off:

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - 2008

Flatbush Pavilion Theater - now
photo: Google Street View

"LGR" also asks: "Does anyone happen to know where on Flatbush the mezzanine exit from the subway actually let? I simply cannot recall from my hazy youth, but it must have been around here."

Our understanding is that the mezzanine exit was through the closed door with the ornate surround, between Antonio's Pizzeria and American Apparel, shown below. The Park Slope Civic Council has been exploring the possibility of reopening this closed entrance to the 7th Avenue station:

Former entrance - 7th Avenue station
photo: Google Street View

Note that in the 1981 photograph at the top, the door seems still to have been in use. Also note that the classic Antonio's Pizzeria sign seems to be unchanged since 1981!

The StationReporter description for the 7th Avenue station notes that there is an emergency exit at the extreme southern end of the southbound platform. Thus one would expect to find an unmarked door, somewhere on the west side of Flatbush, to the south of the current station entrance. A possible candidate might be the white door with no knob, below:

Emergency exit door?
photo: Google Street View

In Case You Missed It: Flatbush Pavilion

In case you missed it... a note about the Flatbush Pavilion, from an article in today's Times about conversions of old theaters to other uses.

Note that in an earlier post, we incorrectly confused the Flatbush Pavilion with the nearby Plaza Theater, whose entrance was around the corner on Park Place. Commenter LGR pointed out our error at that time; you were right and we were wrong!

Flatbush Pavilion, 1912

Flatbush Pavilion
Park Slope, Brooklyn

ORIGINAL Built in 1912 by John Bunny, a silent-film star who was called Film’s First King of Comedy, it was known as the Bunny Theater until it closed in 1929. After a series of reincarnations — it has been called the Plaza Theater and the Plaza Twin — the Flatbush Pavilion opened in 2001 and ended its run as one of the oldest surviving movie theaters in the city when it closed in 2004.

REMAKE The old lobby’s floor has been redone in glossy blue epoxy and the tin ceiling has been restored, but where the screen once stood there is a stage, populated by mannequins clad in American Apparel leotards and leggings. The former projection booth is now a sound studio for the brand’s Internet radio station, Viva Radio, which has encouraged the rearranging of the letters on the marquee to create poems, jokes or advertisements.

Plaza Theater

Updated: Commenter LGR is correct about the Bunny Theater. See subsequent post about the nearby Flatbush Pavilion.

The Brooklyn Public Library recently digitized and made available on the web its photographs of Brooklyn theaters. Naturally we reviewed the collection, looking for anything related to Park Slope.

One of the newly-available photographs features an early view of the Plaza Theater, at the corner of Park Place and Flatbush Avenue. The image is from 1914. The mansarded building on the right is the Durfey residence, 158 Park Place, which stood until 1932:

Plaza Theater, 1914
Photo: Brooklyn Public Library

The center building housed an amazing mix of businesses. All of these signs beckon the passerby:

Prospect Lunch
Brush's Dining Room
Oysters
Bedford Rubber Tire Co. - Auto Tires Repaired

The Plaza Theater lingered until quite recently, finally succumbing to the ultimate ignominy of becoming a chain clothing store.

Hundreds of Park Slopers walk this very sidewalk every day, between the Q train entrance just beyond the edge of the photograph, to the left, and the foot of 7th Avenue to the right.

Lost Park Slope: The Envelope Please

Our Lost Park Slope quiz asked readers to identify the location of the photograph below:

Where is this Park Slope location?

May we have the envelope please... Ruth Edebohls! correctly identifies the location as the corner of Flatbush and 7th Avenues. Below is the same location today; the view is from the Prospect Heights side of Flatbush, looking west across Flatbush at Park Slope:

Flatbush Avenue, 7th Avenue, and Park Place - 2010

The historic photograph is from the collection of the New York Public Library. The text on the verso reads:

The intersection of Flatbush Ave. and Park Place at Seventh Ave. The trolley tracks run northward on Flatbush Ave. At the left is the Durfey house, on the corner of Seventh Ave. and Park Place; beyond it appear Nos. 8-12 Seventh Ave. and the west side of Park Place. About 1912.

The Durfey house, with its wonderful front porch and mansard roof, on the left in the historic view, formerly stood at 158 Park Place, at the corner of Flatbush Avenue. Erected in 1872 in French Second Empire style, it was the home of Joseph Prentice Durfey, a successful jewelry merchant in New York, who died in 1900:

Brooklyn Eagle, June 26, 1900, p. 3 ("Obituary")
Correction: "Durfey & Shieble" should read "Durfey & Shiebler"

According to William Younger's essential Old Brooklyn Photographs, the Durfey house was occupied by the Durfey family until 1906. After later uses as a dancing school and restaurant, it was demolished in 1932. A 1-story commercial building now occupies the site. (N.b.: Younger reprints the same photograph, but identifies it as circa 1895.)

Younger's book identifies the building on the right, at the corner of 7th Avenue and Flatbush, as the Doherty Building. The building was standing at least as early as 1877, when the following ad appeared in the Brooklyn Eagle:

Brooklyn Eagle, March 12, 1877

The Doherty Building still stands today, although sadly its upper two stories were removed at some point. The original quoining can still be seen on its corners:

Doherty Building in 2010
Flatbush and 7th Avenues

The Doherty Building can be seen in the left foreground of the 1914 view below. The legend on the window identifies the occupant as "Brooklyn Post Office Station 86":

Doherty Building at left, 1914 view

In fact, except for the Durfey residence, all of the other buildings in the top photograph still stand today, albeit in somewhat altered form.