Metropolitan Entertainment Centre
281 Donald Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3C 5S4
281 Donald Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3C 5S4
10 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1 - 25 of 179 comments
1919 grand opening ad posted.
Website: http://www.themetwinnipeg.com/
The Wicks organ (the largest theatre installation by that firm) was removed and is now in a studio in a residence in B.C.
The Metropolitan Theatre is now restored and operating as the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre. The theatre is a food and beverage emporium and OPEN to the public mainly as a restaurant. Occasional screenings of old movies are played here as well as Winnipeg Jets home games. For those that can’t get hockey tickets you can watch the home game on the big screen for free! Lovingly restored by Canadinns with financial help from the City and Province, this heritage theatre had it’s rebirth as the Metropolitan Entertainment Centre November 2012 nearly 25 years from the day it last closed as a Famous Players Theatre. If you are in Winnipeg, this rare restored example of an Allan Theatre must be seen! A great place for a dinner date! Paste this link in your browser for more information:
www.canadinns.com/meet/themet.php
Nov. 2010 article about efforts to restore the Metropolitan:
View link
The Metropolitan, as of September 30th, ‘09—>
View link
The total of theaters at Playhouse Square in Cleveland is actually now five, with the addition of the restored Hanna.
Oh yes and how could I forget the 3 Fabulous Fox theatres in Atlanta, St Louis and Detroit (Detroit!!!) as well as the beautiful Heinz and Benedum Centres in Pittsburgh and the magnificent Shea’s in Buffalo….
Canadian cities have had an extremely poor track record when it comes to saving beautiful old movie palaces and turning them in to live performance venues for concerts, Broadway shows, plays etc. Especially when compared to all the cities in the U.S. such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Chicago, Boston and especially Cleveland which managed to save 4 old palaces to form Playhouse Square. Here I can only think of the Royal in Victoria, the Orpheum in Vancouver, Canon in Toronto (formerlly Pangages/Impereial), the Elgin / Winter Garden in Toronto as well as the Imperial in Sarnia, Capitol in Windsor, the Capitol in Brantford. There may be others but at the same time we have lost so many including ones in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Halifax and especially Hamilton and Ottawa which both had 2 glorious palaces lost to demolition…the Palace and cCapitlo in Hamilton and the Capitol and Regent in Ottawa.
I have copies of the origonal blue prints of the met. The prints are signed C Howard Crane hope this clears up any confusion
can someone tell me, since i don’t live in wpg, when was the fox theatres demolished? and was there any real advance notice of the demolition?
I don’t think there was ever a Charles Lamb theatre architect. That was another blunder fostered by the Winnipeg Heritage site (who should know better and get their facts straight). The Capitol in Brantford ON was the only Allen theatre designed by Thomas Lamb as far as I’ve been able to learn. Subsequently all their theatres, including the Met (nee Allen), were designed by C Howard Crane. Crane was also the architect for the fabulous Detroit Fox theatre which has been totally restored. Winnipeg should be so lucky.
Saraphin referred in the first post on this site to theatre architect “Charles Lamb”.
Should this be Thomas Lamb?
I can find no reference anywhere to a “neo-classical” theatre architect/designer in that period named Charles Lamb. A Charles Lamb is also mentioned and described as “reknowned” on another website about the Met.
Just for the record, maybe someone in Winnipeg can check with the Free Press or local library to see if there is any reference to Thomas or “Charles” Lamb whose design style was reportedly adapted by Crane.
Also…the Allen Brothers used Thomas Lamb to renovate the old Hollywood Theatre in Toronto at one time and also used him to design the Capitol in Brantford.
I have been reading up on Thomas Lamb recently so when I saw a reference to Charles Lamb I was curious to see if they were relatives.
thanks a lot ken, nice work. would be fantastick if the boards come off again, then u can shoot what’s seen through the windows.
Oh , answered my own question.. apparently CT is still working on the photo issue.
Lost Memory: That’s my terribly outdated site.. Oops! That was before the “Cinema treasures” forum came to be.. I was aiming for the same purpose (Active discussion) with some pictures etc, to make it interesting. Speaking of which, Ken; have you looked into the Picture option for the Header on this site page?, I know it was down awhile ago. Let’s get our Met on the “featured” page!
Ok I have recently been pass the Met with a camera, but didn’t have too much room left on my camera for more shots, but here is the latest outside shots
http://www.flickr.com/photos/10756279@N08/
it is pretty sad, the way she’s ended up. do hope you’ll have your camera in hand, one of the times you go by next.
Went pass the Met the other day,(with out my camera) and was shocked to see the condition of the out side, all the painted boards were painted brown, and all graffiti covered and posted, so much for all that hard work we did. don’t know what to say. Other that im saddend for the old girl.
that would be great if you could do that ken. will be much appreciated!
Couldn’t tell you, i haven’t been over that way in sometime, will try to make a pass over there soon and bring the camera to see what i can see,, will post somewhere when i get some pics
thanks ken, was able to view them. that’s great work! now with the boards off, that area that can be seen, like the lobby area, is it still about the same as the last pix? or is there much deterioration, plaster falling, etc?
Sorry if you went to the site location that was posted earlier i have reworked it and reposted it, so it has change locations here is the new link,,,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBmWfzVp_zg
you can also find it by going to “echoo2” channel along with my other videos,
hey ken, i went to the site, but got a message that the video has been removed. was really hoping to view it-garro
Wow Look who got in finely,,,,Never did get my emailed password from this site, but found a slip of paper with the info on it while cleaning up and seemed i was only a bit off,, anyways thanks Sam_e for pointing out the mistake, took care of it after reading the post, new remake on site now, gee the things you miss when working late at nite with one eye open. And thanks to burningdust for posting when i counldn’t get in here and sam for pointing out the mistake, hope you all enjoyed the show, and the rest of the vids on there. Ken