Avon Theatre
197 Ottawa Street,
Hamilton,
ON
197 Ottawa Street,
Hamilton,
ON
3 people
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The 770-seat Avalon opened in 1941. In 1969, it was renamed the Avon. The theater was owned by United Amusements which was later taken over by Famous Players. It closed in 1985 and is now used for retail.
Contributed by
Chad Irish
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Recent comments (view all 13 comments)
Hey everyone. I stopped in at the Avon Theater yesturday to see what was left of it. The stage, and the balcony as well as the projection room all remain. The owner said all the projectors and seats, though, were taken away by the owners of the Drive in Theater on Green Mountian Road, when the current owner of the Avon bought it. It’s not used as a rug and flooring store and the balcony is storage. The projection room is not used at all. The entire theater is almost as it was before. Condition wise that is. The sound proofing tiles on the walls are all intact, the balcony looks brand new and so on. I have some extreamly bad photos of the place. I didnt have a tripod and the lighting was terrible, but you can still make a lot out. Some of the photos are on such an angle that I dont even know how they got like that. But, I suppose it’s better than nothing. Just follow this link and you shall see the photos!
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The Avon Theater building recently was put up for sale.
A picture of the Avon as it was in 1966 from the Ontario Archives:
http://ao.minisisinc.com/Webimages/I0011956.jpg
1982 photo of the Avon Theatre.
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The Avalon was renamed the Avon prior to l966 (see 1966 archive photo, and the film showing is “The Trouble With Angels”). The theatre may have been taken over by Famous Players or 20th Century in 1969.
It was more of a neighborhood theatre originally, but later was a first-run house. “…Virginia Woolf?”, “Love Story”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “A Star Is Born”…just a few that played there.
The Avon still looks the same inside as it does in the lovesickphoto 2007 pictures. The interior is probably most of the original Avalon design. Some Avalon exterior detail still exists. The vertical line (relief) on the left side is the same (minus the air vent above the display window), as is the exposed upper brick work. Immediately under the marquee, the pink-colored tile dates back to 1941, with the “A” for Avalon. The terrazzo, from the sidewalk to the entrance doors is still there. A portion of it (to the left) was covered or removed with the addition of the windows. If you look at the 1966 and 1982 photos, most of the exterior is the Avalon original (except for the Avon marquee).
The name of the business occupying the Avon is Twins Floor and Wall Decor. A note on the door states “by appointment”. I visited here in January 2010, and then the owner said he wanted $500,000 for the place. He’s still there.
For more on this and other Hamilton theaters, see “Glamorous Ghosts”, an article by John Sebert in Hamilton Magazine. www.hamiltonmagazine.com/sitepages/?aid. There are some great photos I had never seen before.
A recent Spec article dealing with this part of town (and the notion of somehow ‘resurrecting’ The Avon) prompted me to post an article on one of my community activism blogs:
http://mystoneycreek.blogspot.com/2012/05/oh-if-i-had-million-dollars.html
This theatre was just an old Twinex house — and they used to play a lot of the Disney product there. It was nothing special — the last time I was there would have been in the late 70’s!!!
A Hamilton Magazine article about Hamilton’s theaters says that the Avalon Theatre “…was designed by the man who went on to become Odeon’s primary architect.” The article doesn’t give his name, but Odeon’s primary architect, until his untimely death in 1947, was Jay English.