407-431 West Lexington Street, 407 West Lexington Street (Commercial Building), Baltimore, Independent City, MD
Summary
Significance: Minor part of row (buildings to the east demolished). Block frontage has historic association with Lexington Market. Originally a one-story structure of two-story height, with marquee. In 1911 was movie theater.
Survey number: HABS MD-916-A
Building/structure dates: ca. 1890
Building/structure dates: ca. 1900 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1950 Subsequent Work
Building/structure dates: ca. 1960 Subsequent Work
The popularity of “moving pictures” grew in the 1920s. Movie "palaces" sprang up in all major cities. For a quarter or 25 cents, Americans escaped their problems and lose themselves in another era or world. People of all ages attended the movies with far more regularity than today, often going more than once per week. By the end of the decade, weekly movie attendance swelled to 90 million people. The silent movies gave rise to the first generation of movie stars. At the end of the decade, the dominance of silent movies began to wane with the advance of sound technology.
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