Building of the Day: 530 Eastern Parkway
Address: 530 Eastern Parkway, corner of Nostrand Avenue Name: Philadelphian Sabbath Church, formerly Kameo Theater, formerly Cameo Theater Neighborhood: Crown Heights South Year Built: 1924 Architectural Style: Egyptian influenced Art Deco Architects: Eugene Wiseman Landmarked: No Way back when, before I moved to Brooklyn, I sang with a choir that made a guest trip to…
Address: 530 Eastern Parkway, corner of Nostrand Avenue
Name: Philadelphian Sabbath Church, formerly Kameo Theater, formerly Cameo Theater
Neighborhood: Crown Heights South
Year Built: 1924
Architectural Style: Egyptian influenced Art Deco
Architects: Eugene Wiseman
Landmarked: No
Way back when, before I moved to Brooklyn, I sang with a choir that made a guest trip to this church. I remember I didn’t know where I was, but that the church, obviously a former theater, was very cool.
When I moved to Bed Stuy and wandered over here one day, what a pleasant surprise. Now that I live in the neighborhood, I really wanted to know the story.
Here it is. The building was opened as the Cameo Theater in February of 1924. One of it’s unique features was its 1500 seat roof garden theater, which opened in June of 1924.
In 1925, the Loew’s chain took over the theater and renamed it the Kameo. It remained a movie theater until 1974, after which it was sold to the church.
Although it needs to have the grime of the city removed, the terra-cotta ornament is well preserved and highly unusual. The structure of the roof theater remains as well.
Inside, the church has preserved many of the original details. A British theater buff named Ken Roe was able to tour the building in 2006, and posted his photos on Flickr, one of which are above.
The architect, Eugene Wiseman, was a veteran theater architect. It’s an unusual building, and along with the former Kings County Savings Bank across Eastern Parkway, forms our own Deco corner in Crown Heights.
I remember the Eastern Parkway Arena very well. My cousins and I went there many Saturday mornings during the mid-50’s to roller skate. Since i lived only a block away, on the south side of the parkway, it was really easy to get there. I went to the Pitkin many times as well as to the Sutter. I still remember the children’s section and the matrons who wielded flashlights to keep order there.
“…a no-frills look…”
I have been wondering: which frills would otherwise be included?
Christopher Gray
That’s Clarence Norman’s daddy’s church.
As a life long Brooklyn resident I appreciate BOTD. I’ve must have gone passed that building hundreds of times without any inkling of the existence of a roof top theatre. I wonder what was presented there. There were other venues along Eastern Parkway that are now long gone. One being the Eastern Parkway Arena located near Howard Ave. My deceased father went to see boxing matches that were presented there in the 1940’s and 50’s. Thank you MM. Morralkan: The Sutter, Stone, Stadium, Hopkinson, and Pitkin, being the most elaborate of all these theaters, were fairly easy walks for young 1950’s Brownsville movie goers, which I was one of. I believe, the Pitkin at one time presented live Vaudeville shows, It had dressing rooms for the performers. The presenting of this live entertainment probably accounts for the theater’s elaborateness.
WHY isn’t this landmarked? WHY?
Montrose, this theater is definitely of statewide if not national significance. Being in Crown Heights, terra incognita to architectural historians, it is unrecognized.
Your role is so important as THE person who knows about these hidden treasures in Brooklyn. I think you do not fully realize how important your voice could be.
I really dislike movies, but, seeing those few pics of the interior of the Kameo, I sure wish I had gone there to see The Godfather years ago. (At least, I think that was the movie playing) Oh well, I guess that having gone many times to the Lowe’s Pitkin is not a bad consolation prize.