Building of the Day: 910 Manhattan Avenue

Brooklyn, one building at a time.

Name: Former American Theater, now some kind of retail
Address: 910 Manhattan Avenue
Cross Streets: Greenpoint Avenue and Kent Street
Neighborhood: Greenpoint
Year Built: 1914
Architectural Style: Simple early 20th century movie theater
Architect: Farber & Markwitz
Other works by architect: Tenements and small apartment buildings all over Brooklyn
Landmarked: No

The story: Oh, what indignity hath been wrought upon this theater’s person! But, considering the indignities that were perpetrated on this site anyway, it’s amazing this building is even here. Before this particular structure was built, this location was home to a well-established neighborhood cigar and newspaper shop, operated by a man named Isaac Kaim. The year was 1914, and Mr. Kaim had just died. Soon afterward, the site was sold to a couple of local developers, and a new theater building was approved for the site. It was designed by Farber & Markwitz, a Brooklyn firm that did several small theaters in Brooklyn’s hinterlands, but seemed to specialize in tenement and small apartment buildings. They had offices on Montague Street.

Greenpoint, like most of Brooklyn’s neighborhoods, had quite a few theaters, with theaters on Manhattan Avenue, as well as Meserole, Green, Driggs and Nassau Streets. These presented everything from vaudeville and shows to the later ones that just showed movies. The theater at 910 Manhattan was called the American Picture Theater, and had a capacity of 565 seats. It always showed films. Although the Manhattan was a small theater, it had a presence in the middle of this block, and had a distinctive American eagle, wings extended over an American flag shield.

The theater showed movies on the ground floor, and had a pool hall above it. The theatre thrived showing second-run films. In 1922, the city tried to get a permit to close the building down permanently, saying that the building was badly built, and the walls were bulging outward, but repairs must have been made, because the building was not torn down. But there was a fire in 1924 that caused some damage, but no one was hurt. Everyone calmly filed out of the theater when the alarm was sounded.

In 1932, the billiards sign which hung from the second floor, fell during a heavy wind and almost killed a woman walking by with a baby carriage. The sign fell on the hood of the perambulator, cutting the forehead of the baby, but the frame of the carriage protected the child. The mother just missed being crushed. The weight of the sign crushed the wheels of the pram like eggshells. It was a miracle no one was hurt. Had that happened today, the lawsuits would have been flying.

At some point, a bowling alley was installed on the second floor above the theater, perhaps replacing the pool hall, or joining the pool hall. Two wayward youths were charged in 1932 with robbing the upper rooms, holding up the place and stealing money, cigarettes, candy and cigars. Disaster was stalking the theater again, because one of the pin boys apparently either fell or jumped to his death from his room at the nearby YMCA, in 1938.

In 1968, the name of the theater was changed to the Chopin Theater, as a draw for the now very Polish Greenpoint neighborhood. The pool hall/bowling alley was converted into a meeting room/catering place/dance hall. The theater and catering hall operated well into the 1980s, and closed in 1987. From that time onward, it became a Burger King, a Quest Diagnostics, and most recently, a Starbucks. Upstairs was a bingo hall for a while, as well as the catering and dance hall.

All of that activity took a toll on what was never a spectacular building, but the photos show that even an average building can be made to look a lot worse. It’s been stuccoed, painted, defenestrated, and has lost its original roofline. In its latest incarnation, the American Theater lost its last bit of identity — and oldtimers have lost the last of the old theater’s history. In the latest renovation, in the last couple of years, the American eagle has permanently flown the coop. GMAP

UPDATE! One of our readers sent in updated photographs of the facades, both on the Manhattan and Greepoint Avenue sides. It appears the eagle has not flown after all, and is still there above Starbucks. The Greenpoint Avenue side has been redone, though, and this part of the old theater is going to be a NY Sports Club. Thanks Jim McNamee, for the photographs. They appear below.

(Photo: Christopher Bride for PropertyShark, 2012)