It appears as though yet another historic single-screen theater in America is going to be closing its doors. The Baltimore Sun is reporting that the Senator Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, will be sold at auction on February 21, 2007:

The Senator Theatre, one of the last of the nation's once numerous art deco movie palaces and the only one still showing films in Baltimore, is to be sold at a foreclosure auction Feb. 21.

Tom Kiefaber, the Senator's owner, acknowledged yesterday that he is $90,000 in arrears on a $1.2 million mortgage he took out on the 900-seat theater five years ago.

"I'm extremely concerned that I'm about to lose my theater," said Kiefaber, 54, who also owns the two-screen Rotunda Cinematheque and whose family long ago owned dozens of movie houses in Baltimore.

The Senator, at 5904 York Road, with its plush seats, 35-foot ceilings and elaborate murals about the history of entertainment, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Click the Read link below for the entire article on the Baltimore Sun's web site.

Related Links

• Official web site for the Senator Theatre
• Article about a 2003 update made to the Senator -- Preservation Online (published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation)
• Search Flickr for photos of the Senator Theatre
• Historical information and comments -- Cinema Treasures