Since the 1890s, the city in Maryland has been home to more than 240 cinemas and while many of these buildings have survived, only a few of them still show films. On 17 November, the National Building Museum in Washington DC is opening an exhibition to celebrate the artistry behind them, entitled Flickering Treasures: Rediscovering Baltimore’s Forgotten Movie Theaters.

Check them out for more information and start to see our world through photos!

The Patterson is now the home of Creative Alliance, a center for arts. Its blinking blade sign is a replica of the original Flickering Treasures is open from 17 November to 14 October 2019 at the National Building Museum, Baltimore

Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission

The ‘Wizard Edison’s’ Vitascope projector arrived at Electric Park, a suburban amusement park, in June 1896, two months after motion pictures made their national debut in New York

Photograph: Courtesy of the Enoch Pratt Free Library, Maryland’s State Library Resource Center

The Hippodrome in 1921 was a 2,300 seat vaudeville house and cinema. It was renovated in 2004 to become a performing arts theater

Photograph: Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society

The Parkway auditorium in 1926 which cost $120,000 to build and officially opened in 1915 with a screening of Zaza

Photograph: Courtesy of the Theater Historical Society of America

The Ideal, pictured here in 1938, was a neighbourhood theater, with a 15-by-20ft screen. It was a 21-day house, meaning movies arrived 21 days after opening downtown

Photograph: Courtesy of the Robert K Headley Theatre Collection

Children entering a movie theater in 1950

Photograph: Maryland Historical Society/Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society. Photo by Paul Henderson

The Apex, pictured here in 1962, was opened in 1942 with Remember Pearl Harbor but was turned into an adult cinema in the 70s

Photograph: Paul Henderson/Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society. Photo by Paul Henderson

The Maryland premiere of Lawrence of Arabia at the Mayfair in 1963

Photograph: Courtesy of the Don Gunther Collection

The church which owned the Fulton abandoned the theater after a fire in 2007. The former Fulton was razed by the city in early 2017

Photograph: Amy Davis/Amy Davis. Used with permission

The auditorium of the Parkway retains much of its baroque glory, despite more than three decades of abandonment. It’s now home to the Maryland film festival

Photograph: Amy Davis. Used with permission