Brooklyn Paramount Theatre

Built in 1928, by the studio that bore its name, the Brooklyn Paramount was a magnificent 4,124 seat movie palace that closed in 1962, one year after the horrific razing of the Roxy Theatre in Manhattan.

Now serving as a gymnasium for Long Island University, the transformation is one of the strangest in movie theater history. Although the old Paramount has lost some of its original look, the building still contains the original Wurlitzer organ.

The Wurlitzer, in fact, is still maintained and used for the college’s basketball games. Many argue that the gymnasium’s organ is the finest in the country, if not the world.