Forest Glade Cinema – Long Gone

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• my wife lived in the glade her mother still does! we went by last week it was a pile of rocks now its another parking lot

• Wow, so sad to see it go. I grew up in the 'Glade and spent many an hour watching movies at that cinema.

• As a kid, I lived on Melville which is almost across from Cinemas (there is a plaza where a field used to be). I did see somemovies when I was little. I Wanna Hold Your Hand (Beatles movie with my big brother), Jaws in 3-D, Ghostbusters are just some of the ones I remember.

  Not to worry our sprawl has opened up another in Lakeshore. smh....

• my very first "date" with my very first boyfriend was at this theatre. 20+ years later and we are getting married. I can't even count the number of times we went there with groups of friends growing up. Last time it was open we caught a flick there and I realized why they shuttered the place. Still, sad to see an iconic piece of my childhood reduced to rubble.

• Andrew, you say "While not historic, I’m sure there are a great number of people who grew up on the east side of Windsor with fond memories of the place." but I have no fond memories. I grew up almost across the street from this site. This was pre-Forest Glade and my parents owned a farm which extended to the 3rd concession (now the expressway. So whenever I travel down Tecumseh Road, my fond memories are from a time when the road was but a 2 lane roadway and there was only farmland from the town of Tecumseh to Jefferson.... I don't like urban sprawl... so many good memories but now tainted by what the area has become.

• Demolish it before it's historic lad's, right?

• It didn't really have the architecture to ever be significantly historic, I think. It was just a simple structure.

  But was there any history associated with it? When exactly did it open? I don't don't remember a time when it was not there, and I was born in 1983. For most of my young life, I would go to that theatre, since I grew up in St. Clair Beach. Then when the Parkway 5 opened up, we went to Forest Glade less. Then Silvercity came along, and the new ones at Devonshire Mall, and the Parkway 5 closed, and eventually this one closed as well. It re-opened, but I never did go see a movie there after the re-opening. I kept saying I would, but never got around to it. I remember seeing the 1989 Batman movie there, and during the movie, the power went out for a couple of minutes. I think the first ever movie I saw on my own (with a friend, but without my parents) was at Forest Glade. It was Major Payne. I think we bought tickets to something else and snuck in, though.

• No it probably wouldn't have ever been considered significant, but who knows.
  On the topic of history I have no idea. I moved here in 2000 and had never even heard of the Parkway 5. My guess would be that Forest Glade opened in 1979, but that's just a guess. I'm sure someone here could fill us in on some more history. Super Bowl lanes which is located behind FG cinemas is now completely in view. That building has an interesting curve to it which leads me to believe it's a bit older, but I could be wrong. Some history on that would be appreciated as well.

• The bowling alley was originaly a roller rink, and it predated the theater.

• Yes, the bowling alley in back was a roller skating rink originally. Went to a few birthday parties there in the early 1980's.

  Looking at The Windsor Star archives, ads for movies showing at the "Glade Place" cinemas appear in June 1981 editions of the paper but not in April 1981 ones. So I'm guessing it officially opened in that time period.

  @Dave: I lived on Melville in 1976. I don't remember a whole lot about it as I was only 4 at the time.