WTMD volunteers to rehab historic Baltimore moviehouse
Baltimore- area Triple A station WTMD and its licensee, Towson University, are proposing to rehab a 70-year-old historic- landmarked Art Deco movie theater into a film and concert theater and headquarters for the station.
The station’s proposal is one of four received by the city’s quasi-public Baltimore Development Corp., which asked for proposals to renovate the well-loved, 900-seat Senator Theater where generations of locals recall seeing Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars and other big film premieres. The theater is in northern Baltimore city, about three miles south of WTMD’s home at Towson University.
“Our goal is to make sure the Senator is alive all day, every day,” says Steve Yasko, g.m.. He imagines school choirs performing on the stage in the morning; Triple A musical acts performing and being interviewed for live broadcasts at noon, with donors in the audience; concerts and screenings of independent films and works by Towson film students, and film retrospectives and festivals at night.
The Baltimore Development Corp. will sponsor a public meeting Jan. 5 at the theater for the four applicants to explain their plans, according to Friends of the Senator Theater.
Yasko’s announcement this month brought tentative support from Tom Kiefaber, the Senator’s longtime owner, who lost control of the failing theater when the city bought his mortgage. WTMD’s revival of the theater “may turn out be a wonderful surprise ending to this cliffhanger,” he commented on WTMD’s blog.
Below: The theater as seen on Google Maps.
Web page posted Dec. 15, 2009
Copyright 2009 by Current LLC
