In 2010, The New York Times Magazine called Bushwick, Brooklyn “the coolest place on the planet,” four years later Vogue Magazine named it the “7th coolest neighborhood in the world.” Whether or not you agree, there is no denying the transformations the neighborhood has gone through since the 1600s, when the Dutch named it Boswijck, or “heavy woods.” One of the most drastic transformations the neighborhood went through was from the 1960s until the 1990s. Though these changes had been occurring for many years at this point, Bushwick was thrown into the national spotlight on July 13, 1977, the day of the New York City blackout.

Modern movie theaters are so pedestrian you might not be aware of their more fantastic history. Many of the most spectacular of these “movie palaces” were built by New York City businessman Marcus Loew. From the early 1900s through the 1930s he financed and constructed several architecturally interesting and historically important movie theaters throughout the five boroughs.