Starland Theatre
626 Main Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3B 0L8
626 Main Street,
Winnipeg,
MB
R3B 0L8
2 people
favorited this theater
Showing 25 comments
There were three separate Starland Theatres on this site. The first one was the one originally known as the Royal which became the Starland in 1910 - it actually sat just south of this address. The second opened in 1911 and was closed and demolished in 1921. The third one opened later in 1921.
http://www.mhs.mb.ca/docs/sites/starlandtheatre.shtml
April Fool’s Day, 1926, was a bad day to attend the evening performance at the Starland Theatre, judging from this item in the April 17 issue of The Moving Picture World:
The organ was a 2 manual Warren and it is now part of the organ in the obrien renfrew ontario
This I find very sad. My mother is from Winnipeg and her dad was in the movie business there, working for Rothstein theaters, which booked movies into the theaters in much of Canada. His offices were on the 2nd floor of the Marlborough Hotel, I always remember going there as a kid and seeing tons of posters , pressbooks and promotion materials he was sending out to the theaters.
My Uncle Sammy (my grandfather’s brother) was manager of the Starland and Regent (next door) for many years. In 2007 my mother and I went to Winnipeg and we spent 3-4 days touring her old homes, synagogues and other places she grew up and we went by these 2 theaters and told me my uncle managed these theaters for more than 40 years. I went to show these to my brother on Google maps today and couldn’t find them, and came here and saw they were demolished. How sad, family history and 2 classic theaters gone.
A brief demolition video is here:
http://tinyurl.com/64rwte
Once comments have been submitted there’s no way of editing them unfortunately.
As far as changing the status of the theatre, the site administrators review comments periodically and will eventually change it from ‘Closed’ to ‘Closed-Demolished’.
By the way, apparently the Starland went out in a blaze of glory with the front facade collapsing onto Main Street. The west side of Main is temporarily closed to traffic in the vicinity.
That’s a question I don’t know the answer to.. How does one update a theatre entry on Cinema Treasures? Even the ones I have submitted myself there doesn’t seem to be a way to edit them as far as I can see…
I find all this information very interesting. The other day I was working in one of Winnipeg’s historical hotels right in the area of the Starland. I have never paid much attention to what used to be “theatre strip”. This is very fascinating! It seems as though more and more interesting historical facts are comming to light. I cannot beleive how much history is right here in my home town!
Two more photos are on this page. Rest in peace.
http://tinyurl.com/6hospc
Here is another photo from themuralsofwinnipeg.com:
http://tinyurl.com/56stsg
Demolition has begun today. :–(
Looks like these buildings are coming down next week… Hopefully someone can photograph them before they come down…
There is a good blog article here…
View link
Obviously a listing on the Historic Buildings inventory in this burg doesn’t mean much. Apparently buildings can be dropped from that inventory on a whim so that they may be demolished without much opposition.
Thank you very much for this Ken. It is funny a friend of mine is in Winnipeg this weekend and specifically asked him to go over to the sight and take a look for me!. By the sounds of it these two theatres, which have both been removed from the Historic Buildings Inventory, will be torn down within the month…
The interiors should be documented before demolition certainly…
Here are some recent photos of the Regent and the Starland theatres on Main St, as well in the album pages you will find some Interiors of the Pantages for your enjoyment. I have contacted the City of Wpg in order to see if i can get permission to go into the buildings to Photograph whats left of the interior of the Regent as well as the Starland, will post of course if it happens. Ken
Ps: more pics of mine can be found on the Met pages for those who don’t know. View link
A building listed on the Winnipeg Heritage site and/or Historical Buildings inventory appears to carry little weight with the city administration since it can be removed on a moment’s notice with no fanfare or any explanation for that matter.
Something doesn’t quite jibe with those Starland interior photos. The ceiling was definitely higher since at one time it had a balcony, which makes me think that the floor had to have been filled in and leveled. Also I don’t see any stage platform. I read somewhere that the building had been used for commercial purposes for a time. Perhaps that’s why.
Also there are current interior photos of the the soon to be demolished Starland here, about three pages in..
View link
By looking at the photos some of the interior ceiling/plasterwork seems to have survived intact.
Perhaps someone in Winnipeg will document the demolition in photos so that we can see what else of it survived.. No one ever takes pictures of the stage area/fly gallery…
This is from the Winnipeg Free Press.. The Starland looks like it is toast. There is perhaps some chance for the Epic/Regent down the street which turns out to be one of the oldest surviving purpose built Cinemas in all of Canada.
Clear-cut streetscape
Robert Galston
Updated: March 26, 2008 at 02:15 AM CDT
A drawing was released this month of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s future offices at Logan Avenue and Main Street, which is part of Centre Venture Development Corporation’s “cluster developments” for downtown. A 200-car parkade will adjoin the building, and up the street close to Higgins Avenue, a new surface lot will join the cluster of parking spots.
Reviews of the design for the WRHA building from local architecture critics have so far ranged from bad (“pretty poor — standard office park architecture”), to very bad (“an affront to Inkster Industrial Park, never mind the most historic street in Western Canada”).
But the tragedy is not only what the fabled Main Street strip — which even in 1892 was called “Winnipeg’s Bowery”— will be stuck with, but what it will lose.
The Starland Theatre, a former vaudeville house built in 1909, and the Epic Theatre, a Grade 2 heritage structure which was one of Canada’s first movie theatres — once two of five theatres at Logan and Main. Then there is the Jack’s Place building at 652 Main (1912), and the Weir Hardware building up the street at 666 Main (1899). To allow for demolition, the Starland and Jack’s were removed from the Historical Buildings Inventory by the city’s heritage buildings committee on March 20. The fate of the Epic and Weir’s, meanwhile, will be decided at a later date.
For such a feat of perfidy and hypocrisy, the heritage buildings committee should congratulate themselves: Three historical buildings being approved for demolition in a single day probably hasn’t happened since the 1970s.
It doesn’t have much, but North Main does have historic vestiges of a distinctive streetscape of modest, narrow buildings. Only one block south, between Logan and Alexander Avenue, small-scale, private-led redevelopments are occurring in several of these buildings. At the Occidental Hotel, for example, the beer vendor and VLTs are out, and a multi-use venue and a newly opened restaurant is in.
The two theatres are indeed in a state of great disrepair, but the old Jack’s Place and Weir buildings appear to be in good shape, and could be home to the next art gallery, cafe or design firm to move to the strip. Offices or apartments could go upstairs. Instead, it looks like a giant parkade will replace Jack’s, and a surface parking lot will replace the Weir building.
Such an indiscriminate clear-cutting approach to development is nothing new in Winnipeg’s troubled downtown, where most large developments are publicly led, and the choice of scale and location are highly politicized matters. Usually, projects have been dropped down in locations where they can snuff out as much perceived blight as possible.
In the late 1950s, a new city hall was set to be built opposite the Legislative Building on Broadway. Premier Duff Roblin wanted it built instead on the industrial waterfront of South Point Douglas, but it was Mayor Stephen Juba who got his way. Juba’s plan was to rebuild on the site of the city’s famous “Gingerbread City Hall” as part of a giant civic centre. By the end of the decade, the civic centre would wipe away six of the most interesting and urban square blocks downtown.
As if there was nothing to learn from this and other failed attempts at wrecking ball renewal, the same sort of destruction looms over Main Street today. Perhaps to prove it is still able to deliver big projects like Red River College on Princess Avenue, or the condos on Waterfront Drive, CentreVenture seems to be stretching this development as far as possible. So far, however, there is none of the redeeming qualities those early CentreVenture projects had, and by its destructive nature will be unable to act as a catalyst for economic growth on North Main.
While an architectural design better suited to North Main — even saving the Starland’s facade — has been discussed positively by Centre Venture, it seems unlikely that they will risk slowing down or adding cost to the North Main development by putting pressure on the WRHA or the builders to come up with something better.
In publicly led real estate development (dubious enough to begin with), agencies like CentreVenture must serve the public good with the projects they facilitate. The thought that “any development is good development,” especially when it is out of scale, destroys several heritage buildings, and could ultimately thwart the northward thrust of private-led development downtown, is blind, self-serving, and not worth the loss of so much of North Main’s remaining historic streetscape.
Robert Galston is a Winnipeg writer who blogs at riseandsprawl.blogspot.com
The only other major theater in the city is the C Howard Crane designed Metropolitan (nee Allen). Try as they might Centre Venture (the ciy’s redevelopment agency) couldn’t interest anyone in restoring it. An organization (Friends of the Met) was formed for the same purpose but that died on the vine. Several proposals were put forward, including a rock ‘n’ roll museum of sorts, but nothing ever came of it. Finally a local entrepreneur has come forward and bought the theater. So far final plans have not been made public.
Well Winnipeg does have the Walker and the Pantages alive and well, so we can’t hate them too much ;–)
I see that the city owns both the Regent and the Starland from tax arrears.
It is unfortunate that there is no listing or gazetter of these buildings, I am sure that arts groups in Winnipeg , might have been interested in saving them if they could be shown as viable performance venues
The city is desperate to redevelop that area of town so the proposal by the regional health authority to build there may have been encouraged by the powers that be. They also want to get a liability off the city’s books. Except for the old Regent theater (also abandoned) and one other empty building, the block is already vacant land.
Although it’s only a few blocks up Main from the Centennial Concert hall, Manitoba Museum and Planetarium, as well as City Hall, the area deteriorates very rapidly. I doubt that there would be much protest if the theater was demolished (After all you’re talking about a city that allowed a large Thomas Lamb designed theater to be demolished and no one uttered a word).
Some info on the Regent is here.
www.winnipeg.ca/ppd/historic/pdf-consv/Main646-long.pdf
More pictures here
View link
View link
Also does anyone know more about the history of the Regent Theatre on Main Street in Winnipeg about to also be demolished..
View link
It appears to be next door to the Starland
View link
View link
As can be partly seen in the photo link, the Starland now stands almost alone on that block of Main. At one time it was theater row in miniature. To the right of the Starland was the Fox (demolished) and also the Regent,(still standing but derelict and probably will be demolished when the proposed office complex is constructed).
For many years the Starland, along with the other theaters in that area were grind houses. That part of town was the equivalent of skid row and the theaters catered to the occupants of nearby rooming houses and low income hotels, as well as passengers between trains who had wandered over from the nearby railroad station.
Any idea of what the interior might be like today?
Did it have a very large balcony? Normally there would be a fire escape on the outside of the building.
Is there any interest in saving this theatre or is the medical centre a done deal?
Although the Starland is listed as a Winnipeg Heritage site and is afforded some protection, according to sources it is in pretty poor condition. This doesn’t bode well for it’s survival. It hasn’t been occupied in years and hasn’t been heated either. It’s also located in a pretty seedy area of town and has probably been broken into more than once and used as accomodation by the homeless.
The exterior looks to be in decent shape though. It has an old rectangular marquee, which may or may not date back as early as 1911. It also still has its large vertical sign consisting of STARLAND spelled out in letters lit by individual incandescent lamps inside of metal circles also lit with incandescent lamps.
I agree with the larger seating capacity of 1349. Although I haven’t been inside of it for years the theatre was fairly spacious and had a full balcony and a stage house.
At one time it had a Samuel Warren two manual organ with possibly seven ranks (a guesstimate by the current owners). It was removed in 1947 and stored along with parts from another area organ in a barn in the Ottawa ON area. However a fire in the barn destroyed some parts of the organs and no record of the actual number of ranks from the Starland organ exists. Eventually the remaining ranks and possibly the console ended up being incorporated into the O'Brien Theatre organ in Renfrew ON.