Metropolitan Theatre

Good news for the vacant Metropolitan Theatre! It may be getting a new lease on life.

The Met could have a new, if temporary, tenant according to a city development corporation. Confirmed by Centre Venture, Tombstone, a Vancouver-based company that makes sets and does digital production, is interested in leasing the Met. Even a local film company has expressed interest in shooting some scenes in the theatre.

Built in 1919 by C. Howard Crane, the Met was originally called the Allen and renamed the Metropolitan after Famous Players cinema chain took it over in 1923. The theatre was the first of the ’movie palaces’ because of its large size and opulent interior décor. The Met has a typical exterior façade used on a number of Allen/Crane cinemas, but has one of the most attractive movie house exteriors that were ever built. One of the first movie “palaces” in Canada, the Metropolitan Theatre was one of the best works of C. Howard Crane, among America’s top-ranking theatre architects.