The curtain may be closing on the Senator Theatre.
Located near Belvedere Square on York Road, the Senator Theatre has been an icon in the Baltimore community for nearly 70 years, but is facing the possibility of being put up to auction for failure to make mortgage payments on time. Tom Kiefaber, the 54-year-old owner of the Senator, is trying to deal with the situation the best he can.
“Well obviously it?s sort of one of the defining moments of my life,” Kiefaber said. “It?s very challenging, quite stressful and a result of what has taken place today, once the public became aware of it. I am very encouraged by all that has unfolded today, and still is.”
Kiefaber is about $90,000 delinquent in his mortgage payments on the $1.2 million mortgage that he took out with First Mariner Bank five years ago. In 2002, Kiefaber took out the loan to reopen the Rotunda and refurbish parts of the theater. At the time, Baltimore City guaranteed half of the loan to First Mariner to help keep the Senator open. The foreclosure auction is currently set for Feb. 21, but Kiefaber hasn?t given up yet.
The Senator was originally built in 1939 by Frank H. Durkee, Kiefaber?s grandfather. The theater stayed in the family as part of DurkeeEnterprises until 1989, when Kiefaber purchased it. Some of what makes the 900-seat Senator special are its 35-foot ceilings, elaborate murals and rotunda. Stacked up against huge surround-sound multiplexes, however, the impressive architecture and timeless layout fails to draw in a fast-paced society.
“A single-screen theater like the Senator cannot be profitable unless it receives equal access to book films that are released,” Kiefaber said. “For 18 years, we have not had the ability to program the theater that we would otherwise, and that is one of many potential solutions to our problems that are now coming together for us.”
Local residents are just as upset to see the Senator fall on hard times. Leslie Wietscher, a community member who lives within walking distance of the theater, has fond memories of the place, with her out-of-town sister always checking on what?s playing at the Senator when they are back home.
“People will be devastated if we lose it; it?s the heart of the community,” Wietscher said. “Many of us have lived in the neighborhood for decades and remember being taken there as children.”
