1918 – Princess Theatre, Toronto, Canada

The Princess Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1915, rebuilt in 1917 and finally demolished in 1931 for a civic street expansion project, the extension of University Avenue. After the 1915 fire, it was rebuilt by B.C. Whitney, along with New York producers Klaw and Erlanger and re-opened in 1917 as the ‘New Princess Theatre.’ The new theatre seated 1,650, at the time the largest in Toronto.

“This lobby is seventy-two feet long by twentyeight feet wide, with the box office and a large smoking room on opposite side and connecting at the end with the main foyer having the ladies’ waiting room and check room adjoining.

The auditorium which is approximately one hundred by eighty-two feet, is done in a scheme of harmonizing colors with a decorative ceiling treatment, a plaster enrichment with velvet draperies being used for the proscenium and boxes and simple ornament to define the panelling of the walls. Further decorative features consist of suspended ceiling lights and inverted globes set in circular ornament beneath the balcony, which together with the wall brackets give an evenly diffused light over the entire auditorium.”
Construction, February 1918

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