Monday, September 1, 2014

THEME DAY-Rust and Ruins-Cinema Balkan

The movie theater "Balkan", built between 1867 and 1870, was first used as a  hotel for a short while and even an opera house, and later hosted projections of the first movies between 1909 and 1911.  In 1912 it became a permanent movie theater.  I remember going there on a fairly regular basis, and I took my kids to see Disney's Fantasia there as well, a film that I had enjoyed as a child.

Though there has been much talk of its restoration, it's  been as shown above for many years now....sad.  The way things are going now, it's likely to eventually be turned into a shoe store or clothing store.....

Check out other interpretations of this theme day at THEME DAY.

10 comments:

William Kendall said...

It is sad. And the longer one leaves it unattended, the less likely restoration can work.

paul said...

It might be preferable to have a caring shop owner look after the building than to let it fall further into disrepair... Good post for the theme.

Olivier said...

j'espere qu'un jour il sera renove pour que tes souvenirs continuent de vivre

Unknown said...

interesting photo :)

Indrani said...

Interesting history.
Hope they don't bring it down.

Stefan Jansson said...

You don't see too many former opera houses with rust.

Luis Gomez said...

Very interesting. It looks like a great building.

Thérèse said...

Une belle evocation et une photo interessante. Par contre Fantasia ne m'a jamais inspiree a part le passage avec le magicien.

Thérèse said...

Et la musique qui l'accompagne bien sur qui va me trotter dans la tete maintenant jusqu'a ce que je me couche ce qui ne saurait tarder :-)

Gaelyn said...

Such a shame to loose old icons like this.

THE ROOF CAVED IN....

 Well, not the entire roof. Just the back side, which is not visible here. Every year I make a gingerbread house. Notice I said 'made,...