Check Out The Old Theater That's Been Hiding Out Over A Bodega In The East Village

Back in the day

East Village Farms on Avenue A, between 6th and 7th streets, is closing its doors in early February, and sadly, according to EV Grieve, the building it's housed in will be demolished. Local photographer Kevin Shea Adams recently got curious about what condition the old theater above the bodega was in, and here's what he found when he was granted permission to explore it after midnight one night.

A giant windowless brick shell traversed only by an old, warped fire escape juts up some 40ft directly above the store front, a giant black box. I learned from people in the neighborhood that this was once the old Hollywood Theatre which shut down in 1959, but what was more surprising was when I found out it wasn’t just another dusty, gutted empty space but was the functional store room for my dearest bodega!
I showed up with my camera and tripod... Walking through the back past all the things you would expect and up a small staircase deposits you stage-left in this little store’s swollen subconscious.

EV Grieve also has some photos from an earlier explorer of the space, who says, "I'm not sure the building is worth saving—the cool parts of it seem really run down and unusable—but the ornate period works need to be preserved as best as they can. I would love to have a theater there, but I suspect it's headed for new housing."

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on January 25, 2012 2:27 PM

Comments [rss]

tw

Doesn't N.Y have a Historical Society that can stop them fom taking it down ? that building is history. I live in florida and they can stop that from happening, its a long process of paper work to get it on a as historic site.

Editrix Abby

Yeah, wow. Like the East Village needs more housing. Or more NYU students. Ugh.

Quasiblu

Amanda, it first has to be named as a landmark by our Landmarks Preservation authority, which is a hugely political and controversial process and always fought tooth and nail by the NYREB (New York Real Estate Board) who advocate tearing everything down that is not: A) an NYU dorm; or B) a big-box store ie, UglyMart. We have no federal, over-arching preservation body that can protect the fate of any building against developers, unlike you guys in the UK. We have the National Trust, but they only make recommendations. Our preservation councils in the USA are very vocal and committed but legally they have little power against lawyers and money. Best to you. -Quasiblu

Amanda Garrie

message from the UK: don't you guys over there have injunctions and preservation orders to stop the demolition / changing of heritage like this? It may have closed only 50 years ago, but the interior is obviously much earlier. Someone ought to get down to your city hall and register an official rejection at the planning department.

TranscontinentalEmily

I hope someone at least saves and reuses the gorgeous interior elements. But NY has many beautiful theatres--I remember the renovation of Brooklyn Academy of Music in the 1960s. I'm so lucky in Bellingham, WA, to be working for the historic Mount Baker Theatre, built in 1927 and saved by the community in the 1980s by forming the nonprofit organization that still runs the theatre, now publicly owned and supported by thousands of donors every year. Here's what it looks like: http://www.mountbakertheatre.c...

Kamil

If only the photographs were a bit stronger.

Drew Guarini

I always looked above that bodega walking around there and wondered what the hell it was. Roof of that bodega is so sketchy but is certainly helped with the charming and distracting NY Lotto signs they always hang up above it.

MitzkaMN

Here's one that a group of dedicated people are working to save:
http://lyriccenterforthearts.b...

a tale of a few cities

Treasures like this can be found everywhere used as storerooms etc., it is not only NY. Also it is not only NY that tears things like this down.

Udon Lipsmack

Get in that projection room, pronto. Gotta be some good things in there worth saving.

miss_subways

This is so cool and beautiful- I've wondered what's up there for a really long time.

Mordicai

I'm guessing renovation would cost like a brazillion times as much, huh? & probably not be competitive with some crummy apartments. DANG IT. Oh well, the market has spoken!