Built as a Dutch Reformed church in the mid-19th century, the building at 143 East Houston Street became the Houston Hippodrome, a Borscht-belt vaudeville, film, and boxing venue, in 1909. The Hippodrome was sold in 1917 and was renamed the Sunshine, showing first-run movies until its closing in 1945. For nearly half a century, the auditorium was used as warehouse space for Semel Goldman Hardware. For a time in the mid-1990s, it was rented out for sporadic independent rock concerts, before Landmark Theatres bought and renovated the building. On December 21, 2001, Landmark opened its modern, five-screen art house behind the Sunshine's classic façade.
Photographs taken in 1999
Landmark's Sunshine Cinema (Official)
Sunshine Cinema on Cinema Treasures