At the turn of the 20th century, Downtown Brooklyn had a theater district to rival Manhattan’s. In the space of a few blocks near the Flatbush Avenue Extension, a collection of grand multi-use ballrooms and smaller vaudeville stages proliferated. Just a few decades later, most had fallen into disuse and disrepair, but in many cases, the buildings themselves survive. Here’s a look at a thriving entertainment district of days gone by — and the contemporary adaptive reuse projects reinvigorating its legacy.

Brooklyn, like any bustling urban center, is (and has always been) home to a diverse variety of venues constructed and operated with the express purpose of entertainment: from theatres to pools to baseball fields. In the late 19th and early 20th century, vaudeville theatres were constructed in the most populous areas of Brooklyn, bringing popular entertainment to the working-class masses. In the early decades of the 20th century, the changes in technology altered the way Brooklynites were entertained. Vaudeville waned in popularity as moving pictures were introduced. Some of the early theatres evolved with the times, adding a movie screen and changing their operations, others closed and were razed in the boom of the building that overtook the borough in the first half of the 20th century. This massive development growth meant the former sleepy rural areas of south Brooklyn were becoming vibrant communities. New movie theatres, often designed by well-known architects, popped up everywhere, offering cheap entertainment (and snacks!) to generations of first dates and family outings. As technology once again evolved in the second half of the 20th century and television allowed for similar entertainment within one's home, theatres suffered. In the financially depressed years of the 1970s, many movie theatres closed or transitioned to more "adult" entertainment. Very few of Brooklyn's early 20th century venues remain operating movie theatres today. Those structures—not an inconsiderable number, particularly in South Brooklyn—that survive have largely been re-purposed as music venues, big-box retailers, churches, and is a popular conversion for these large spaces, as fitness centers and chain pharmacies. If you keep your eyes open, the architectural features of the old Brooklyn theatres occasionally pop out from the streetscapes, hiding behind Rite Aids and Walgreens.

“145 Ashland Place, between De Kalb Ave., and Willoughby Street, showing the City Prison, as seen from Lafayette Street. July 10, 1932.” The Raymond Street Jail, later the Brooklyn City Prison, was built in 1836 to hold the city’s male prisoners (an annex for female prisoners was added in 1839). In an oversight emblematic of the building’s purpose, the prison was constructed without a front door (an entranceway was later carved out of the completed facade). The facility was closed in 1963 and razed ahead of the construction of the Brooklyn Hospital Center.

“Flatbush Avenue Extension, at the northeast corner of DeKalb Avenue, showing the Paramount Theatre Building, the view being south toward the latter avenue, 1932.” Opened in 1928, the Paramount Theatre building has been owned by Long Island University since 1962. In addition to film screenings, the theater hosted jazz, rock and roll, and Yiddish music performances. Despite its conversion for use as classroom space and a gymnasium, the building retains much of the theatre's original decorative detail.

The 19th century saw Fort Greene develop from farmland held by a few families to a residential neighborhood, populated by a mix of Brooklyn’s working, merchant, and upper classes. Today, much of the neighborhood has been well preserved, including several blocks of brownstone and rowhouse architecture, churches, parkland, and civic institutions dating to the 19th century. Even in areas transformed by postwar urban renewal and commercial development traces of an earlier era remain.

Subway construction for the BMT Brighton Line at DeKalb Avenue Station, May 15, 1919. The station opened June 22, 1915 with service available on the Fourth Avenue Line (today's D/N/R trains). Construction continued for five years, culminating with the opening of Brighton Line (B/Q) service on August 1, 1920.

Billed as the first movie theater built for talkies, the Paramount on Flatbush and Dekalb Avenues opened in 1928 with the movie Manhattan Cocktail. Alan Freed, who coined the term "rock and roll" in 1951, staged revues here while working for radio station WINS. Following its purchase by Long Island University, the movie house showed its last feature, Hatari, with John Wayne, in August 1962. The next year it was converted to a gym, though its famous Wurlitzer organ still played on.

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