Ontario Abandoned Places will be rebranded as Ominous Abandoned Places

Windsor Capitol Theatre

Historic Location Recreational in Windsor, Ontario, Canada

Apr 20 2021

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Recent status Historic Location
Location # 17457

The Loew's Windsor Theatre was designed by Thomas White Lamb, one of North America's most renowned theatre architects and built for about $600,000 in 1920. It was designed to hold 1,995 seats with standing room in the rear. As such, it was once the biggest single floor theatre in Canada, complete with an orchestra pit and a theatre pipe organ.
The building was purchased in 1922 by Simon Meretsky and two other partners and renamed the Capitol Theatre. The following year, the Capitol joined the prestigious BF Keith vaudeville circuit, bringing some of the biggest acts from New York City to Windsor.
Famous Players purchased the building in 1929 and during the 1940s - 60s, live theatre was phased out while movies continued to show. In 1938, Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs premiered.
In the late 1940s the exterior was remodeled in a Streamline Modern style. The theatre was then divided into a movie triplex in 1975-76.
The threat of demolition in the late 1980s prompted an extensive community effort to save the building. In 1993, the building underwent an extensive interior restoration funded by all three levels of government and the local community, and the exterior was replaced largely according to the original design. The theatre fell on hard financial times, but is now enjoying a rebirth as the home of the Windsor Symphony Orchestra.

Comments

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2 years ago

I would say 99.9999% of the time on a "Doors Open" event, permission is required. So probably not without emails or phone calls, or waiting for the actual event if it ever happens again.

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3 years ago

Can you get into the theatre?