Abandoned Baton Rouge

Best Comment Ever, Lincoln Theatre Edition

One of the more historic buildings featured on Abandoned Baton Rouge is the 1950s-era Lincoln Theatre, at one time a "blacks only" movie house. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke there when planning the Montgomery bus boycott. According to commenters on the post, musicians such as James Brown and Chuck Berry performed there, it showed porn and blaxsploitation films toward the end, and it was possibly the site of a race riot in 1972, although that was probably at the Temple theater. (Such is the ephemeral nature of "oral" history passed on in blog comments.)

A Tinseltown Surprise

 

It only closed in the past few years or so, if memory serves, but I still thought every time I passed it en route to New Orleans that I had to check out the former Tinseltown movie theater. Even a few months can do some interesting damage to a structure here. Plus, you never know what you might find. Turns out it was a quick and mostly uneventful visit, but I did find something pretty cool.

Broadmoor Theatre, Merchants Landing flea market, and more

The Broadmoor movie theatre is one of those places that's supposedly not permanently closed. It's still up for lease, or as the roadside sign reads, FOR L A

 

Lincoln Theatre complex

This compound is an abandoned and semi-abandoned downtown treasure. (I think it's in the downtown? Or near it? It's hard to tell where downtown starts or ends when nobody's around.)

Today's subject: The onetime sight of the Lincoln Theatre, Pharmacy, Barber Shop, and Wash-In (I think that's what the last phrase says? Is a "wash-in" a Laundromat?)