Inside Baltimore’s historic Parkway Theatre
Sun photographer Amy Davis writes about her most recent visit to the historic Parkway Theatre.
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- Exterior of the Parkway Theatre, with missing marquee and broken windows. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- Interior view of theater from the balcony. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- Detail of ornate carved decorations on the exterior of the balcony. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- The remains of the stage and proscenium of the Parkway. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- One projector housing remains in the cramped projection room of the Parkway. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- Old photographs taken shortly after the Parkway opened in 1915, on a decrepit display inside the theater. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
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- A mural has recently been painted on the corner building adjoining the Parkway. (Amy Davis, Sun Photographer) BUY THIS PHOTO
I don’t usually request photo assignments, but I made an exception when Jacques Kelly told me that he would be writing about the Parkway Theatre, dormant for over 30 years. I first photographed the 1915 Parkway for a Sun feature story on Baltimore’s old movie theaters three years ago. While working on that self-assigned photo essay, I became intrigued with the plight of these architectural gems, scattered throughout the city. Once so glamorous, these movie houses had survived the wrecking crane but were now disguised as churches, stores, or offices. Many, like the Parkway at 5 West North Avenue, had become poster children for urban decay. That 2008 photo essay generated so much mail from readers that it encouraged me to embark independently on a photo book called “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters,” which I hope to publish in the fall of 2013.
The Parkway, which seated about 1,000, had a curved balcony that survives, box seats, chandeliers and an organ, all long gone. Its first audience saw silent films. I would love to hear from readers who remember it as an elegant Loews theater, or in its last incarnation as the 5 West, an art house.
The future of the Parkway, in the burgeoning Station North arts district, is more hopeful than many of the 50-plus theaters I have been documenting. To me the Parkway is Baltimore’s Snow Princess, lying frozen in time within its dignified Italian Renaissance brick shell. All it needs is to be kissed back to life by a wealthy prince, who will take the form of a developer chosen by the Baltimore Development Corporation. In fact, this fairy tale image is so strong in my imagination that I wanted to photograph the Parkway in the snow, but alas, our balmy winter did not produce any photogenic snowflakes.
Will this developer-prince respect the Rococo flourishes that make the Parkway interior a miniature French jewel box? You can see many of the surviving details in my photographs, including an oval medallion painting reminiscent of Fragonard. It will take great sensitivity to restore the Parkway’s interior, while adapting the space to a profitable use as an entertainment venue for film, theater and concerts.
A golden orb of the sun, framed by rays, is still perched at the top of the proscenium. Perhaps it’s a reference to Louis XIV, the Sun King. From there your eye travels upward to the gilded trim on the vaulted arches of the Parkway’s Baroque dome, which has miraculously survived. Over the years, these arches have remained hidden, while the golden arches of a McDonald’s have sprouted next door, then were torn down and rebuilt. Now it’s time for the Parkway princess to wake up.
Amy Davis is currently documenting Baltimore’s surviving movie houses in an on-going photo book project called “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters.”
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Mark Miller
Dec 21, 2012 @ 07:23:40
My most vivid memory of the 5 West goes back to December 23rd, 1966, when I saw Endless Summer, the classic surfing movie filmed, I believe, in 1964. I enjoyed the movie as did my date, a 15 year old (I was 17) lass from Dundalk. The neighborhood around the theater wasn’t great then, though it got a lot worse in subsequent years. Hopefully the proposed rennovation will infuse new life into the area.
Doug Stevenson
Aug 13, 2012 @ 21:06:43
Hi, Amy. I found your pictures because a friend posted a link to Facebook. I was a kid in the 1960s and a teenager in the 1970s and remember the 5 West and its sister theater the 7 East. I’m working with old memories here, but I believe I attended movies in both theaters. I don’t recall either of them as art houses, but then I also don’t recall the term “art house” being used at the time in the media or by movie-goers like myself. In fact, I probably never heard the term until the mid-1980s, and I was a regular or semi-regular movie-goer at general release theaters and repertory theaters in Baltimore, Providence, R.I., and Washington, D.C. by that time. When I was a kid and a teenager we didn’t think of the 5 West any differently than we thought of The Boulevard on Greenmout Ave., The Northwood in Northwood Shopping Center or The Mayfair and others on Howard St. (or, what was it?… The Playhouse, maybe? on 25th St.). They were just movie theaters and you went to the one that was convenient for the movie you wanted to see at the time you wanted to see it or because it was near where you planned to be before or after the film or because it was a convenient place for kids to be stashed while parents ran errands.
I’ve been curious about the fate of the 5 West, the 7 East and The Playhouse for a while now. (I even worked at the first iteration of that North Ave. McDonald’s in 1977 and used to think about those theaters whenever I was down there. McDonald’s, and particularly that one, hadn’t been around in Baltimore for all that long at that point. The continuity of the marquees and the connection to my childhood were comforting.) Have you or do you have any plans to shoot inside the 7 East, which I believe is currently a church, and inside The Playhouse? Also, you likely know of this but maybe other readers don’t. There is a wonderful website with tons of archival photographs of and current photographs of the locations of many if not all of the movie theaters that operated in the city and environs in the 20th century. I’m afraid I can’t include a link. I have it bookmarked on two different crashed hard drives, but I have not as yet been able to recover the bookmarks. However, I’m fairly certain it can be found easily with a Google search. I look forward to your book. Cheers.
Alan Shecter
Apr 10, 2012 @ 21:25:02
More fine work from Amy Davis! She cherishes old Baltimore movie houses while she shines as a successful, professional photographer. Certainly, as the old Parkway is at the cusp of a new life, no one but Amy Davis should be on the scene, clicking away!
patricia verden
Apr 08, 2012 @ 22:23:27
How poetic and yet so important. Writing from Sydney Australia where we have so little of our theatrical heritage left due to over development, Baltimore should recognise the opportunity to preserve such fabulous theatres for future generations. Keep photographing and writing about such wonderful theatres.