It’s hard to imagine that 100 years ago the Hastings Street area had a thriving theatre district, filled with opulent buildings, cafes and people, and known as the “Hastings Great White Way.”
In past blogs I’ve written about the Strand, the Pantages and the Empress–all theatres that once existed in downtown Vancouver, but have long since been turned into parking lots or cheaper, uninteresting buildings.
I decided to take a look at the city directories from 100 years ago and take a stroll through Vancouver’s theatre district. Just look what we’ve done with the space.
In 1914 the National Theatre and the Columbia Theatre sat side by side at 58 and 64 West Hastings Street, just across from the Rex Theatre. The space is now a “developer ready” lot.
The Bijou Theatre sat at 333 Carrall Street just off Hastings Street. It was demolished in 1940. The photo (below) and the story of its life and death is at the Changing Vancouver blog.
In 1913, The Vancouver Opera House turned into the Orpheum Theatre and started showing vaudeville acts. The Orpheum (but not the one we have now) sat at the 700 block Granville Street. In the Leonard Frank photo below you can see the second Hotel Vancouver behind.
By 1935 the Orpheum had morphed into the Lyric and in 1969 it was a distant memory — demolished to make way for the Pacific Centre.
The Imperial Theatre was once part of a vibrant street scape along the 700-block Main.
The theatre is long gone and the two adjacent buildings on the corner of Main and Union and what’s now the Brickyard are likely soon to be replaced by another boxy glass condo building.
The Star Theatre was at 327 Main Street in 1914.
Sources:
Changing Vancouver – then and now blog
Murray Maisey’s slide show on Hastings Theatre
For more posts see: Our Missing Heritage
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9 comments on “Vancouver’s Missing Theatres”
“Paved Paradise and put in a parking lot”!!!!
Certainly feels like it doesn’t it – makes me want to cry when I see the photos of those beautiful old buildings
A history of early Vancouver theatres, including the Opera House / Orpheum
http://ojs.library.ubc.ca/index.php/bcstudies/article/download/1035/1073
always great stories Eve, have you ever done a story on the “Commodore Ballroom”, I had only been there a couple of times but is definitely one of the best dance halls in Vancouver…and must have quite a history.I was born in Vancouver in 1943 , raised there in West Point Grey(just a regular neighbourhood back then) and when I was about 30 yrs old , decided to go North…….sure wish I had stayed.
Thanks Michael! I wrote about it in my book Sensational Vancouver. Aaron Chapman has done a great book on it called Live at the Commodore.
I’m not having any luck finding a photo of the exterior of the National Theatre that was on Hastings Street, next to the Columbia Theatre – have you ever found one? It’s possible that when it was leased for 12 years, the lessee changed the facade.
Re the photograph of the 700 block of Main St with the Imperial Theatre: note that the Imperial has been renamed the Orpheum, and is showing ‘big time vaudeville’. This happened for just 4 weeks in September 1914, before the Orpheum Circuit withdrew, probably because of the disruption caused by WW1. I suspect a date of Sept. or Oct. 1914 for the photo, with that march being linked to the war. The ‘big time’ Orpheum circuit was based in Chicago and would in 1915-16 take over the Orpheum at Georgia & Granville.
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