ZIP Codes and Politics: How Redrawing Borough Lines Redefined Bushwick and Ridgewood

If you ever look across Wyckoff Avenue from the subway station near Myrtle Avenue, you will see Planet Fitness with a barely noticeable Greek-like arch at its pinnacle. This was the site of a movie palace called the Parthenon, which had its gala opening in 1921. 

When, four years later, the county line was re-drawn, the Parthenon, which was previously located in Brooklyn, “migrated” into Queens. While this move obviously muddled the Parthenon’s borough of residence when its schedule appeared in the newspaper Movie Boxes, the same problem curiously affected many of Ridgewood’s other—and always Queens-based— movie theaters, which, over the years, were consistently listed under the Brooklyn heading. This remained true of the old Ridgewood Theater until it closed for good less than a decade ago. So, what gives?