Uptown Theater
55 Dunlop Street West,
Barrie,
ON
L4N 1A3
55 Dunlop Street West,
Barrie,
ON
L4N 1A3
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Opened on March 18, 1937 by Richard F. Garrett. Some of its original installations include a striking façade of red, black, and primrose vitro-lite panels under a prominent marquee, the interior included a lobby illuminated in blue and orange tones, plush rugs, and curtains. It was twinned in the mid-1970s and went under the name “Imperial Cinemas 1 & 2”.
The building occupied by the Uptown Theatre was once the home of a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, as seen in this undated photo from the Barrie Historical Archive.
I’ve been unable to discover when the building was first converted for use as a cinema, but the portion that is now the Uptown was reopened as a three-screen house in late 2009, according to this article from December 3 that year (Stinson Theatres had closed the 8-screen complex in February, 2009.) The original Imperial Theatre, opened in 1937 at 43 Dunlop Street, which had operated as screens 1 and 2 of Stinson’s Imperial 8 Cinema, was slated to be converted into an event center called the Grand Theatre. The other three auditoriums in the 8-screen complex were to be converted to retail space.