Plans for an east side neighbourhood movie house, first came up in the 1930s, but the onset of the Great Depression but those plans on hold. Once the economy improved enough the onset of WWII further delayed the theatre’s arrival due to a lack of building materials. Finally with the war over, the project was announced in January 1947.
Designed by theatre architect Eric W. Hounsom of Toronto, the theatre opened with a capacity of 926 on November 11, 1948.
The images above from SWODA show the presence of the theatre in the area on the north side of Wyandotte Street near Dawson Road. Unfortunately for the Centre it opened around the same time that television sets became affordable and more common at home. The theatre kept on an received a major upgrade in equipment in 1980. However attendance continued to dwindle and in September 1982 the theatre closed for good. Ideas for the building were floated, including it becoming the home of Windsor Light Opera, but in the end no buyer came forward and the theatre was demolished in September 1986. The pharmacy located just west of the theatre building a new building on the site of the theatre and moved over, while their old pharmacy was demolished and replaced with a McDonalds.
I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading the site over the last year, I am grateful for all of the readers of this site. This will be the last entry for 2022. We’ll see you back here in Monday January 2, 2023. May you all have a safe and happy holiday season with your friends and family.
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My Mom brought me to my first movie there.
Billy Jack in the 70's.
Also remember seeing Tron there in 82.
Must have been right before it closed.
My aunt took me there many times, and we saw movies like Bedknobs and Broomsticks, The Bad News Bears, and many others. This was back in the day when good movies would come back and be shown again.
According to the 1960 Windsor city directory (on archive.org), the address was 4904 Wyandotte St E. Now it's replaced by a medical building with address 4900.
I ushered at the Centre back in 1952. I did two shifts a week, Wednesdays and Saturdays. Saturday I was there for the afternoon with all the young folks (baby sitting) and for the night run. As they changed movies usually on Mondays, I had to change the marquee. No fun when it was cold. Also the automatic coal hopper had to be filled so there would heat through to Monday. They did have dish give-aways. Occasionally a dish would be thrown to the main floor from the balcony. Fun on New Years eve when empty bottles of liquor would roll down the floor, under the seats. I never had to have a patron ejected.