1919 – Metropolitan Theatre, Donald Street, Winnipeg

The theatre was one of 45 in a chain owned by the Allen brothers, Jay J. Allen and Jules Allen, and visually very similar to one in Toronto. Designed by C. Howard Crane, who designed many theatres for the brothers, the 24,000-square-foot cinema was constructed in 1919 and opened with a formal ceremony on 2 January 1920 as the Allen Theatre. Its main auditorium and mezzanine had seats for 2,500 people.

An American from Detroit, Crane had opened an office in Windsor, Ontario, to attend to the numerous projects he worked on in Canada. The Met is one af only a few of his buildings still standing in Canada.

In 1923, after the brothers ran into financial difficulties due to overextending themselves, the company was acquired by Famous Players and the theatre was renamed the Metropolitan. It underwent renovations in 1948 and finally closed as a cinema in 1987. It later sat empty and decaying for many years before a restoration and reopening in 2012 as a function space.

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