Forgotten Art Deco jewel Baltimore’s Ambassador Theatre
Sun photographer Amy Davis discusses a recent assignment to photograph the Ambassador Theatre after hearing a fire had broken out in the Baltimore landmark.
- JULY 9, 2009: The Ambassador, an Art Deco theater built in 1935, was offered at a public auction today. At left is an abandoned supermarket, slated to be torn down to make way for a new shopping center. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 9, 2009: There were three bidders among the small crowd gathered outside the vacant theater at 4604 Liberty Heights Avenue in Howard Park. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 9, 2009: Distinctive Art Deco details of the Ambassador include the sign and the facade of yellow brick with black brick banding. The Ambassador, built in 1935, was offered at a public auction today, but the highest bid of $125,000 was too low for the seller. There were three bidders among the small crowd gathered outside the vacant theater at 4604 Liberty Heights Avenue in Howard Park. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 9, 2009: Auctioneers Dennis Warfield, left, and Charles Parrish, second from left, both of Auction Brokers, try to generate bids from the small crowd gathered for the public auction today at the Ambassador. The highest bid of $125,000 was too low for the seller. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: A fire early Thursday morning badly damaged the Ambassador Theater, an unusual Art Deco brick building on Liberty Heights Avenue in Howard Park. The Ambassador Theatre was built in 1935 by the Durkee organization as a luxurious neighborhood theater. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: Fire-damaged front entrance to the former Ambassador Theatre. The building had been used as a cosmetology school and a church, but was currently vacant. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: Fire-damaged front entrance under the marquee of the former Ambassador Theatre. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: Charred debris inside the former theater lobby. A fire early Thursday morning badly damaged the Ambassador Theater, built in 1935 on Liberty Heights Avenue in Howard Park. The building had been used as a cosmetology school and a church, but was currently vacant. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: Vertical theater sign for the former Ambassador Theatre visible above the marquee. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: The Art Deco facade used contrasting bricks to create bold horizontal lines which wrapped around the sides of the theater. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: The north side of the former theater shows the distinctive yellow and brown brick banding, left, and the vertical neon sign, at right. The bricks wrapping around the curved north corner of the facade, seen at center of this photo, had fallen off before the fire. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
- JULY 5, 2012: Baltimore City posted a large public notice saying the building at 4604 Liberty Heights Avenue was condemned. (Amy Davis/Baltimore Sun)
I froze in place when the Director of Photography, Bob Hamilton, handed me the assignment to photograph the aftermath of a two-alarm fire at the Ambassador.
Built in 1935 by architect John Zink, the Ambassador was one of Baltimore’s classiest neighborhood theaters. But on the morning of July 5, 2012, a blaze overtook the interior of the Ambassador, partially destroying the interior of the boarded-up movie house.
Immediately, I feared for the fate of this Art Deco jewel, which I have been photographing since 2008 for a personal book project.
Upon arriving at the scene, I was relieved to see that the glazed blonde bricks with black banding were still there, marred only by soot on the façade to the right of the entrance. All the doors were flung open releasing the musty smell of smoke and revealing that the interior appeared to be intact. Only the front lobby area was completely charred. The original ticket booth, long hidden when the building was vacant and boarded up, was a blackened shell. After the Ambassador closed as a theater, the seats were removed, and the glamorous interior was irrevocably altered for other uses.
Art Deco aficionado Donna Beth Joy Shapiro, a former president of the late Baltimore Art Deco Society, considers the Ambassador “…the most fantastic Art Deco movie theater built in Baltimore, bar none. The interior was like a set for a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie. You really expected to see Fred and Ginger come twirling out.” She added, “The asymmetry of the building catches your eye. It’s the essence of Art Deco, a style which did not take hold as strongly in Baltimore as it did elsewhere.”
Currently tacked to the front of the Ambassador, a sign posted by the city announces “THIS PROPERTY IS CONDEMNED.” Sun reporter Colin Campbell wrote that the owners would like to redevelop the Ambassador and hope that the new supermarket and shopping center across the street will spur commercial interest in their property, which had no takers when an auction was held in 2009.
Shapiro observed wistfully, “People should definitely care about the Ambassador. It would be a gift to our city if someone could figure out how to restore the façade and give the building a new use and a new life.”
Amy Davis is currently documenting Baltimore’s surviving movie houses in an on-going book project called “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters.”
Amy Davis
Feb 25, 2017 @ 22:32:59
Dear Susan,
My reply sets a new record for slowness! I came across this old photo essay tonight, and spotted your comment for the first time. My apologies. When I did this essay on the Ambassador, I didn’t know I would still be working on my photo book, “Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters” for five more years. The book will be published by Johns Hopkins University Press in the fall of 2017. Please visit, and “like” my public FB page for more updates. http://www.facebook.com/flickeringtreasures. Thank you for your interest. My humble apologies for this very belated reply, Amy
Susan K
Jul 13, 2012 @ 13:53:02
Please email me when your book is published. I would love to buy it.