The forgotten cinemas of Baltimore – in pictures
Since the 1890s, the city in Maryland has been home to more than 240 cinemas and while many of these buildings have survived, only a few of them still show films. On 17 November, the National Building Museum in Washington DC is opening an exhibition to celebrate the artistry behind them, entitled Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters
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The Patterson is now the home of Creative Alliance, a centre for arts. Its blinking blade sign is a replica of the originalFlickering Treasures is open from 17 November to 14 October 2019 at the National Building Museum, Baltimore
Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission
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The ‘Wizard Edison’s’ Vitascope projector arrived at Electric Park, a suburban amusement park, in June 1896, two months after motion pictures made their national debut in New York
Photograph: Courtesy of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland’s State Library Resource Center
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The Hippodrome in 1921 was a 2,300 seat vaudeville house and cinema. It was renovated in 2004 to become a performing arts theatre
Photograph: Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society
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The Parkway auditorium in 1926 which cost $120,000 to build and officially opened in 1915 with a screening of Zaza
Photograph: Courtesy of the Theatre Historical Society of America
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The Ideal, pictured here in 1938, was a neighbourhood theater, with a 15-by-20ft screen. It was a 21-day house, meaning movies arrived 21 days after opening downtown
Photograph: Courtesy of the Robert K Headley Theatre Collection
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Children entering a movie theater in 1950
Photograph: Maryland Historical Society/Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society. Photo by Paul Henderson
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The Apex, pictured here in 1962, was opened in 1942 with Remember Pearl Harbor but was turned into an adult cinema in the 70s
Photograph: Paul Henderson/Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society. Photo by Paul Henderson
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The Maryland premiere of Lawrence of Arabia at the Mayfair in 1963
Photograph: Courtesy of the Don Gunther Collection
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The church which owned the Fulton abandoned the theater after a fire in 2007. The former Fulton was razed by the city in early 2017
Photograph: Amy Davis/Amy Davis. Used with permission
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The auditorium of the Parkway retains much of its baroque glory, despite more than three decades of abandonment. It’s now home to the Maryland film festival
Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission
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Partial demolition of the venerable 1904 Mayfair began in the fall of 2016
Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission.
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The meticulous restoration of the Hippodrome to its original appearance was completed in 2004
Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission.
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The Senator Theatre is one of Baltimore’s most intact examples of the Streamline Moderne style
Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission
