Bklyn's former Fox Savoy Theatre, it's next familar swan song

I can help but imagine Joni Mitchell serenading this post.

In the days of old, when Brooklyn was the world and Bedford Avenue a rich and mighty vein laden  with auto dealerships at it's center and various lush residential neighborhoods emanating out to the ends of the borough, there stood the Fox Savoy Theatre, as seen in the photo above from July 3rd 1929, looking north, downhill on Bedford Avenue. (Photo by George Mann)

A landmark in Brooklyn and New York history, this is the New York Times announcment of the Fox Savoy's then impending debut:

This is how the former Fox Savoy Theatre looked in late 2012:

Like a lot of things in Brooklyn I've witnessed it for decades. At some point in my childhood, I noticed it was inhabited by a church named "Charity Neighborhood Baptist Cathedral" and that's how it remained, until last year. I didn't notice the sign for the church was gone until I saw the dumpsters parked out front last spring. I've been trying to find out what the history and future of the building is since then. I finally found some history:

From the website, "Cinema Treasures.org" http://cinematreasures.org/theaters/6069/

"The Savoy Theatre was the largest theatre that William Fox ever built in Brooklyn prior to the downtown Fox Theatre. Opening publicity claimed 3,500 seats, but that has been debated ever since. Some industry year books say 2,750, but I would guess more like 3,000. The Savoy Theatre has a very large balcony with minimal space between the rows.

The Savoy Theatre was built at the same time as Fox’s Academy of Music in Manhattan, with Thomas W. Lamb as architect of both. The Savoy Theatre’s auditorium is in the Adam style, with boxed seats adjoining the stage and a shallow dome in the center of the ceiling. It first opened on September 1, 1926, with Fox’s “Fig Leaves” on screen, plus six acts of vaudeville. With program changes twice a week, the Savoy Theatre was considered the Fox circuit’s top Brooklyn showcase until the 1928 opening of the downtown Fox Theatre. After that, it became just another neighborhood movie house, but playing first-run for the area.

After William Fox’s bankruptcy, the Savoy Theatre landed under the Randforce Circuit, which, to signify the theatre’s importance, moved its executive HQ to office space in the building. The Savoy Theatre carried on into the 1960’s, despite all the social turbulence in the Bedford-Stuyvesant area.
Fortunately, it escaped demolition and became the Charity Neighborhood Baptist Church. Except for removal of the marquee and alterations to the entrance, the Savoy Theatre’s interior is virtually intact, though re-painted in whitewash in most areas. Some of the original stage curtains are still hanging, and I’ve been told that old scenic backdrops are still stored in the lofts."

I don't live far from the building, my grandmother once worked in the daycare center that shares the same block, back when the it was called the "Haitian-American Day Care Center". Considering the renaissance of cultural venues reoccurring in Brooklyn today, and with Bedford still easily accessible as a wide two-way street that literally goes from one end of the borough to the other, I presumed upon seeing the church sign was gone, that the building was going to be reborn as a new mixed used venue.

That seemed plausible to me not only for the revitalization of Franklin Avenue a block west, and the increasing rents that signal old businesses being forced out and new ones welcomed two short blocks east on Nostrand, but because also the Loews Kings Theater starting renovations just last year after being a building completely unused, and destroyed by rain and squatters for decades.

Instead it turns out demolition is what is happening.



The photo I took (above) is how it looks today (Jan/2014)

The first of New York City's Fox Theater's and the last one standing will be demolished without much fanfare, it seems. There has been an effort to landmark this and other streets in the western end of Crown Heights but those efforts are still in consideration. This building wasn't fast tracked, it's going to go and leave memory and important questions in it's wake.

Questions like the ones Brownstoner commentator "Melrose Morris" wrote about in May 2013 (which I missed) (http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2013/05/building-of-the-day-1515-bedford-avenue/):

"The church needed money to do extensive repairs, and of course, being a shrinking economically disadvantaged congregation, they didn’t have it, and there was a lis pendens on the building, as well. So they sold the building for tear down, with the developer promising that members of the congregation would be able to have a preferential standard in renting an affordable apartment there when the new housing was completed. I hope Charity got that in writing. 

I’m angry for a couple of reasons. First of all, this building should be saved and landmarked. It is a cultural icon of a movie age of old, a big part of the history of Crown Heights, the history of Fox and movie theaters in Brooklyn and America, and an important part of Thomas Lamb’s shrinking number of contributions to architecture. America has been shaped by the movies in myriad ways, and large movie houses like this are a part of that legacy.

We blew this one, from a preservation and community standpoint. We didn’t know it was endangered, the congregation didn’t reach out to the community, or to any kind of preservation entities with a cry for help, and now that’s it’s been gutted, and has a permit for demo dated last year, it’s too late to do anything but take photographs, and maybe grab a terra-cotta chunk of debris from the pile of rubble when it’s all over. Where was the community on this? No one drove, or walked by and noticed anything? And beyond that, realistically speaking, what would happen to the building had it been individually landmarked? There’s not a big demand for enormous theaters that need a lot of work. Could it have been converted to housing, or bought by nearby Medgar Evers College for their use? Would landmarking have been the right move, given all the circumstances?

I’m also angry because it seems from the numbers presented, the church got royally screwed. If they had to sell, they could have held out for much more. You can’t buy a two story run down house in Crown Heights for $575K. How can anyone justify that price for that enormous building that takes up literally half the block? I can’t help but think that the developer took advantage of a cash strapped group of poor black people who were not real estate savvy, and thought they were making a lot of money. Where were their lawyers? Where was the Community Board? Wasn’t there anyone in their congregation, or friends or family who said, “Whoa, that price is not high enough. Crown Heights is gentrifying and real estate is going up faster than the temperature on a hot day. We need to buy a new church, we have to get more than a piddley $575,000.

They are still going to get an enormous footprint to work with, and there will be a lot of units in any kind of building they do. Will some of them be affordable? Will some of the parishioners of Charity Baptist be living there? Or will it be another cool luxury condo building marketed towards the “New Crown Heights” that is straining to move east of Franklin Avenue, which is only a block from here? I guess we have no choice but to wait and see."

It seems despite the positive aspects of gentrified Crown Heights, namely an increase in community organizing and activism, no one from the neighborhood or active residents had enough of a relationship with the Charity Neighborhood Baptist Cathedral to be aware they were selling, no, essentially giving the building away. And no one from the Church apparently reached out to neighborhood thus allowed this historic building to be sold for the unfathomable price of less than $600,000.

In my opinion, everyone in Brooklyn who cares to develop over destroying significant history of the City takes a collective "L" for this one.

It's amazing how the bonds of neighborhood and community that were weaken and in some cases broken, back in the 60's, 70's & 80's still resonate today.

Despite all that has been left to ruin or otherwise lost, there are still gems and iconic elements in Brooklyn. I believe we need to be more active unless we want to keep saying goodbye to things that shouldn't go, and singing this song:

"Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"

-Joni Mitchell

Photo Wednesday 07/03/13 : Independence Edition

Biggggg past week and weekend saw the closing of throwback hole in the wall venue, BPMStudio.




Pride and pageantry and Ru Paul thousands more proud folks floated down 5th ave in the City

And a new cafe emerges on Bedford Ave and Park Place taking over my brief beloved burger spot.

Clearly we're free to do what we want, (?) whether we're being watched, eh, who can say.

Have a Happy and safe Fourth of July!

StudioBPM last night Yah! & Grove Alley Happened, Meh.

Grove Alley a heavily promoted street that dead end's behind part of Downtown Brooklyn no one knew existed was given a party, a dose of hip and college try. The food trucks were faves, the crowd was young, trepidatious with notes of lascivious and the vendors showed their goodies. I wasn't moved but I did get this great shot:

Definitely a lot of potenial for the space and I'm sure the powers that be in real estate will make another swing since the alley is in the nexus of several literally up and coming condos downtown. For my tastes I'd need a little less Hooser Meanwhile Studio BPM avoided the whimper choosing instead to go with the musical bang ala jam session. It was crowded, cozy, loud, rapturous a little drunken and everything else the hole in the wall music venue has been for ten years, if it had to close it went out hard.

Studio BPM Bye Bye Party TONIGHT

(Photo © Jason Scott Jones)

I blame the years and first impressions. Sometimes the reality that the neighborhood formally known (In my mind) as Williamsburg is not a river hugging no-man's land between a wet and a hard place. That union workers don't process sugar in the cross hatched shadow of the bridge anymore. Supposedly religious men don't troll for underage fair along the underlit south streets. Blue flickering broadcasts don't illuminate the retired and retiring working class couples front windows like they used to. And Kent Avenue isn't the more western of two parallel and nearly always desolate blocks, lined with yesterday's industry. I forget about today.

Today is the last night StudioBPM will be open on Kent Avenye. It's a classic and literally hole in the wall were local and far a field musicians have grooved for over ten years ago by some not as young as they used to be folk from the land of the rising sun.

The space is sweet, not being a musician I speak from the peanut gallery which works because it's got a gallery's boxy fit coyly suggesting hidden sonic treasures to be found and it's smallness floor level stage make you feel like your in the coolest living room being treated just because life can be good.

All the players of the last ten years and more in the undiscovered (often widely "discovered" soon after though) crowd has played there, Apollo Heights, TV on The Radio, Dub Nomads, Akoya Afrobeat Ensemble and many more. Set lists were discarded or non-existant, videos accompanied, enhanced or distracted, Dub was plentiful by Rock, Soul and various experimental sonic cocktails had their nights and a good time was had by all.

The first time I got to know StudioBPM was shortly after they opened in 2002. The entrance was just some doorway with a guy standing there, he didnt ask me for anything and his sole presence on the block gave me a little confidence that this non-descript one level light industrial building was what I was lookign for. Shortly after entering the door I felt I was going to some combination of dungeon, level of Hell, Wizard chamber, which on a given not it could be. From the entrance you'd quickly descend some stairs and endup walking threw dirt (or mud if it had rained) and as soon as you reached this short trip to the pit, you were walking right back up again in to the narrow lounge space the preceded the venue. It was trippy the definition of grit, weird, disconcerting, exciting, bold. Perfect. Nightlife like New York City used to exude on the regular. That it was 2002, post Millenium, Post the dark day in September, post "Hipster" in the lexicon, made it all the more wonderful to the native New Yorker I am.

A few weeks back I attended a gathering and performance of "The Brunt Sugar Arkestra Chamber" who were honoring member and Saxophonist "Moist" Paula Henderson of "Moisturizer" & "Rev. Vince and the Love Choir" fame. The performance made me woozy in that feel good took me away and showed me the sights kinda style. And it was then (late) I learned that the forces of real estate in WillyB were forcing them to shut there doors.

I asked one of the staff, part of the fantastically warm and charitable Japanese crew behind Studio Bpm and this guy in particular of the fantastic type uber laid back to the point of stand-slumber Japanese dudes I'd known and cherished in Tokyo, if they were really closing and he nodded. "What's next?" my slack-jaw asked, his laid back posture, held, levitated and then laid forward, just a bit as he replied,"I dunno. Umm. Condo?"

Internally I thought,"How the fuck can you put a condo in a place like.." was the point where my mind caught on and up to the day we're in. Zoning laws had changed, much begat a change in positioning for a new not-so-hipster newcomer, which unleashing a waterfront flood not much different than Sandy for a lot of people. I left the staffer, the electric spark of funk soul and improvisation still with me courtesy of the generous musicians, but when I did the "v" stairs and exited the building I noticed, for the first time, despite being a new Williamsburg visitor, the condos, across the street, up and down the block, I'd come out of a time warp and and like many before me ran out of time.

Tonight's the StudioBPM Bye-Bye. Make it or miss it. 237 Kent Avenue btw Grand & N1st  9pm until https://www.facebook.com/studiobpmforjapanhttps://www.facebook.com/studiobpmforjapan

I didn't think there were any fixtures left on Ludlow to go

Unfortunately I was wrong. Another piece of the Lower East Side 90's & 00's went the way of the Dodo. 

Courtesy of the NY York Times

The Pink Pony closed it's doors, likely for good, on Jan 31st.

Detailed below by the New York Times, the story talks about the neighborhood leaving the familiar and moment essential bar more so than the bar leaving the neighborhood. 

Damn this thing change. Same thing that made Reagan a Republican. Damn, Damn, Damn. The article photo of the cafe front features a posted, leaning Jim Jarmusch at the entrance. I myself ran into Jim often there and made an ass of someone, probably me, by asking a few too many questions of him during dinner.

Ah youth, it goes so fast.

Well, now we know who's the last one to turn out the lights on Ludlow Street. To paraphrase Bugs Bunny, "There. Sports Bars...Take it away"

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/another-90s-fixture-of-lower-east-side-is-gone/

Mayor Koch, Rest In Peace.

(Photo courtesy: NY1)

Mayor Koch.

A resilient thread in the fabric of New York City.

The Mayor of New York City. The Mayor of my childhood. I was much more a fan of his chutzpah than his Mayorship. 1977-1989. Twelve years, stopped in the process of going for 16. Prior to Ed Koch we had no term limits on Mayor. After we knew we needed them. (something of the past easily forgot in the Bloomberg moment)

I'll write more on the endless ways he maintained and promoted a certain classic New York City, which arguably, was his sworn duty. But for now Mayor Ed Koch, in his own words (some of which of course, I disagree with), courtesy of an New York Times produced video:



Edward I Koch, you wrought havoc on some, brought placidity to others and your were always, fortunately and unfortunately focused on New York City. I respect that. Rest In Peace.

Blame it on the BoogieMJ Tribute party last night in Brooklyn @ Sputnik

Last night at Sputnik in the hazy space where Clinton Hill and Bedford-Stuyvesant intermingle, DJ Spinna and Keistar Productions turned an intended Motown party into a straight Michael Jackson Tribute. As the pics show, people turned out, got of the wall and just enjoyed themselves.


As if song titled puns weren't enough, the party was hot, REALLY hot (these photos were not altered and the camera was wiped dry several times and still the heat of the crowd created the atmospheric effects you see in the pics.) Check the slide show for more, and RIP MJ.


Slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/mr_fuetur/sets/72157620544773669/show/

Frankly speaking: Frank White is closed (or is it? Update below)

It's Friday and I don't know where you're going tonight, but unless your a real estate broker you're not going to Frank White's lounge on Atlantic (at the boarder of Prospect Heights and Clinton Hill (once upon a time twas the boarder of Crown Heights and Bedford-Stuyvesant, yeh I know...))

That's because Frank White is closed. Yup, I happened by yesterday and took some pics.

It was a cool lounge, good neighborhood spot, even hit up a party where Spinna played. They had an artsy aesthetic, doing things like using Poker chips as currency, WHICH I STILL HAVE (might as well be Bear Sterns stock). But alas it seems artsy accents and trading cash for cuteness couldn't keep the place afloat. Which makes me wonder when are entrepreneurs gonna realize that this stretch of Atlantic Av is not the place to put up a successful social business. (insert Atlantic Yards comments.....Now!)

Frank goes up to small biz heaven like Pork Knockers before it (closed around 2000 same locale).

Now that Frank White is for rent, think I can get the space for one black Movado?

UPDATE: According to longtime BBBlog poster "Leer", Frank White may live on.

Leer said...

Yea. I talked to the owner recently and she said that they are closing there but will be reopening a few doors down. This time it will only be for events and showcases... no food. So Frank White will live on. Although I feel that any type of foot traffic business is doomed on Atlantic... wish they would take it to Fulton St.

Maybe I can cash in my chips after all...

The Photo Wednesday that time (I) forgot. Fishy and Crusty no more.

whoa, I missed wednesday all together. I won't bore you with the details of my life but suffice to say I've been very busy. But no excuses and no more delay, folks, it's PhotoWednesday (one day late) and a news day at that.

On a stroll I noticed this:

"Fish and Crustaceans", a friendly small takeout fish shop on Fulton street with barely enough space for the crowds who came to stand inline and order has been part of conversations in the Fort Green Clinton Hill area for years. An instant neighborhood institution in the tradition of neighborhood spots long since passed. According to the signs posted in the window, it has been closed.

All I think of when I see this title is a punchline. It's like they should be selling aquariums, or bait and tackle or something. Frankly I never came up with a winning joke setup good enough for the punchline. The enthusiasm people expressed to me long before I wandered down to Fulton St and encountered Fish and Crustaceans is what inspired me to want to attach a fall-down laughing punchline to my conversations about the Fish Shack. It seemed everyone, everywhere I went for months, was talking about how good the food was despite the awkward name.

I tried the fried fish, with french fries as skeptically as I could and still came away a convert. The food was truly delicious, a sinfully guilty pleasure. I've always believed the mark of good comfort food is the enjoyment that comes from eating something you know is probably not good for you. And the crispy, salty, greasy but not too much, portions along with the total coma I'd fall into after eating seemed to indicate how far from fresh fruit those meals were and added to the pleasure. And sadly now it seems the moment is over in exchange for some actually awkward news.

Closed by order of Board of Health for "operating without a permit". I'll post more as it comes.

Another Church To It's Knees

This story from Peter Duffy of the NYT is of a the 100 year old church whose presence reps the last vestiges of the once thriving Italian-American community the flourished in Ocean Hill/Brownsville. The church Roman Catholic "Our Lady of Loreto" at the corner of Sackman and Pacific Streets, is set to be demolished to make way for...wait for it...affordable housing.

Photo by Kirsten Luce from The New York Times 12/30/08

(above:Barbara Anne Lepak, center, with her mother, Susan Pascucci, left, and her daughter, Laura Andrews, are trying to save Our Lady of Loreto from demolition.)

A clear conflict of communities and histories. Basically most of the former Italian-American neighborhood has moved on and the church which was served them now has very low attendance. So the Diocese of Brooklyn is trying to save money, etc and that's why the church is closing. The building was proposed for landmark status which is still under review reminding me of this story on the LPC's slow pace to landmark. But considering this other recent announced church closings like this one in Bed-Stuy it's not easy to be happy for the affordable housing that's taking the church's place especially when you have these personal accounts that just breaks ya heart:

Theresa Harrison, 80, one of the few Italian-Americans to remain in the neighborhood, said she felt terrible about the impending demolition. “To me, it’s a sentimental thing,” she said. Ms. Harrison, whose maiden name was Pennine, still lives in the home where she was born on Jardine Place. “I was baptized there. First communion. Confirmation. I was married there.”

Then I read this quote:

“It’s the last thing we have left that we can hold onto and pass on to our grandchildren,” said Mr. Mondelli."

and couldn't help but think that unlike current communities in NYC struggling to not be run over and pushed out, this community (albeit for some understandable reasons) left. If the community wanted to preserve the church, the time for that was long ago and could probably only have happened if they forged ties to newcomers rather than just peeling out (message!).

Personally while I acknowledge Brownsville as being better than it's 80's self, it's still not on my list of Brooklyn neighborhoods to visit willingly and while the Italian-American Brownsville of days gone by sounds like a great place in it's time (I'd like to have eaten at "Carlucci’s Restaurant" or "Ariola Bakery" as mentioned in the Times piece) if I did traverse the hood during that time would I have felt any safer there than I do in the current neighborhood? I wonder...

Anyway it's an interesting turn on the "history of a neighborhood torn down for new stuff" saga that I often rail about. Plus I realized I do very few Brownsville-Stories of which I have a few, but for now this story will have to do. Equal time.

(Update I remembered a story about this area, click here)

After 146 Years, Brooklyn Convent to Close [NYT]

Long time New York reporter David Gonzales has the story of The Sister's of Mercy, whose building will close after 146 years.

(Photo: James Estrin/The New York Times)

The building whose interior is shown in the picture above from the times is on Willoughby Av. in Fort Greene.

Final Fatigue: Astroland's last go round.

By now you probably know the Astroland section of Coney Island's storied amusement center has closed, most likely forever. As is my way I got a story from my childhood, I'll make it short. There was a tower ride at Astroland called the Enterprise. Shaped like a donut on a pole, it simply went up, reallly slowly, while revolving (even slower). Once it reached it's peak, maybe higher than the Cyclone, it stopped motionless and after a while it came down.

My mom took me on the Enterprise when I was six. She was thrilled by the slow enterprise and had been looking out into the distance when she glanced back at me looking bummed. She apologized for the ride being so boring. To my (and maybe her) surprise I consoled her with the truth, I loved it. I had never seen anything from so high up, and the view of the ocean, beach, Coney Island and the city in the distance, it blew my mind in a quiet way.

That day was my first time on the rides at Astroland, and it's gone and to be honest, there's been so many things closed in this city in the short span of ten years (Empire Skate, the Roxy, CBGB's, Florent, Tonic, Vinyl, Wetlands, The Tunnel, The Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, Albee Square Mall, Gil Hodges Lanes; The Kenmore, Plaza, Metropolitan and Duffield movie theaters to name a few, that I have final fatigue.

So as far as Astroland goes, I'll never forget how much more exciting it was for my mother to watch me ride the rides, than the rides were themselves, especially now that she's gone. But like her and alot of other things, memories is all we got now, and the best we can do is hang on to and make the most of out of whatever emotions we got left.

Gowanus Lounge had this intensely anti-climatic video of the closing at Astroland, which demonstrates why memories are better than endings.


But don't worry the Cyclone and Wonder Wheel will be there next year.

-ubb