Mardi Gras Theatre
1295 Nostrand Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
1295 Nostrand Avenue,
Brooklyn,
NY
11226
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The Mardi Gras Theatre is located at the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Clarkson Avenue.
It opened in 1908 and for such an early movie theatre, is quite an elaborate building on it’s facade. There is a half-timber gable front and decorative mouldings (today partially covered by signage and painted a darker shade of blue).
It is listed in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915, but apparently closed around 1915 (some say 1919). Judging by the size of the building, the seating capacity would have been around 350-400. It was converted into a garage in January 1920.
For many years the front entrance was in use as a deli and grocery store, whilst the main auditorium is used for storage by a local plumbing company. The building was demolished in January 2015.
Contributed by
KenRoe
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
The building at the corner of Clarkson and Nostrand Avenues is listed on Google as 1295 Nostrand Avenue. See actual ariel photo at
View link
This was the Linden Theater in the mid 1950’s as I walked by it daily on my way to Erasmus Hall High School. I lived on Midwood Street and Nostrand. The address 1260 Nostrand was provided by another member for the Linden and is on the same side of the street but down Nostrand beyond Parkside. In the fifties, the buildings there were three storey row buildings of buff colored brick built prior to 1901. All were identical with stores on ground floor and a flats above. I can recall no indication of any sort of theater there.
Now I am getting confused here!! The link you posted as an ‘actual ariel photo’ actually shows an ariel view of the Century’s College Theatre, 1584 Flatbush Avenue listed on CT here: /theaters/3871/
The Century’s Linden Theatre has always been listed as 1260 Nostrand Avenue in Film Daily Yearbooks and had a seating capacity of 1,447 (now demolished). There was also another Linden Theatre, 815 Flatbush Avenue with 1,000 seats, listed on CT here: /theaters/7702/
The theatre on this page….the Mardi Gras Theatre, 1295 Nostrand Avenue (listed at this address in the American Motion Picture Directory 1914-1915) would have had a seating capacity of no more than 400. As it closed in 1915 I doubt that there are many alive today that would remember it operating as a movie theatre.
I lived on Clarkson Ave right off Nostrand Ave from 1959 to 1969. Everyone is confusing two entirely different buildings. The Linden Theater was at 1260 Nostrand Ave (on the northwest corner of Nostrand & Parkside Ave) and was a movie theater until 1961. The Mardi Gras was at 1295 Nostrand Ave (on the southeast corner of Nostrand and Clarkson Ave). For the ten years I lived there, the Mardi Gras building was an auto repair shop. In one of the pictures posted above, you can see the pull-down grated door where cars entered the repair shop on the Clarkson Ave side of the building. The two buildings were one block apart and on opposite sides of Nostrand Ave.
I have found some additional information which clears up many errors in my above postings. Bill Conklin is right.
As Ken Roe correctly says the Mardi Gras opened circa 1908. It was located on the southeat corner of Nostrand and Clarkson Avenues. It took up two address numbers, 1295-1297 Nostrand Avenue .
It closed in late 1916 due to competion from Ward & Glynnes’s new Century Theater which was located a block away across Nostrand. It became a new car dealership and served numerous other purposes over the years and still exists as posted photos show.
View link
Photo Mardi Gras Theater on Nostrand
Judging by the street view, and Ken’s older photos, the building is now vacant and for sale.
This building should be landmarked before it goes the way of the Fox Savoy and becomes condos: http://www.cpexre.com/system/assets/properties/documents/542/original/1295_Nostrand_Ave–Setup.pdf?1366231675
Too late, TygerLily, the building is half demolished. They started 12-30-14 and should be done by late this week. So sad for a 108 year old building that was a NickelOdeon from 1907-1925. It’s facade was fully intact. The blue tin was ripped off the structure. It was in use for 90 more years.
I got a solid brick from the demolition site. It was very heavy weighing in at 35 lbs. They built them solid in the good old days.
Uploaded photo of the Mardi Gras mentioned above which was linked on the Linden site.