Fillmore Movie Theater

681 Fillmore Avenue

The Fillmore Avenue Movie Theater was among the first amenities to emerge as growing neighborhoods across the East Side came to resemble self-sufficient villages within the expanding city, each with its own stores, houses of worship, and commercial districts. According to local listings, the theater was in operation prior to 1913. It seated 1,000 and remained open until the mid-1920s. It was no longer listed as a theater in local registers in 1929. The building exists today as a mixed-use business with commercial spaces on the ground floor and leased spaces on the second.

The collage of this image illustrates the demographic transformation that has occurred over the building’s history, from its opening in the 1910s as a white ethnic immigrant enclave to its use as a mixed-use business for the African American community.