A few older postcard shots of the Cleary Auditorium. Designed in 1957 by Johnson and McWhinnie, the buidling that was built was a much scaled down version of what the architects had imagined.
Even back then the Mayor and Council meddled in the plans, and the auditorium was shrunken as was the convention space. Plans for a smaller second theatre in the basment were also scrapped. The basement theatre would have been able to share dressing area and technical areas with the larger theatre above.
Instead of a multi-purpose facility, we got the scaled down version that was recently sold to St. Clair College. Almost immediatley the short comings of the truncated facility became evident.
Johnson & McWhinnie were comissioned in 1963 to add a freight elevator (that was removed from the original plans) and a kitchen. In 1966 they were again called on to work on an addition to the building.