4. Sunshine Cinema
Sunshine Cinemas wasn’t originally built as a theater. This building at 141 Houston Street started out as the Dutch Reformed Church in the mid-1800s. At the turn of the 20th century, it was converted into a prize fight club called the Houston Athletic Club, according to the New York Times. Less than a decade later it was converted into a theater, the Houston Hippodrome, by Charles Steiner and Abraham Minsky. The Sunshine name came in 1917.
When the Great Depression hit, the theater closed for over 50 years, during which time it was used as a storage facility. Finally, in 2001, after a three-year renovation by Landmark Theatres, it reopened as a theater showing independent and art house films. After the rising rent prices became untenable, this beloved Lower East Side spot was sold to a developer and demolished in 2018. It has since been replaced by a glass tower designed by Roger Ferris.