Grand Theatre
43 Dunlop Street West,
Barrie,
ON
L4N 1A4
43 Dunlop Street West,
Barrie,
ON
L4N 1A4
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I don’t believe that the Imperial ever operated as a movie house under the name Grand Theatre. This article from December 3, 2009, is about the reopening of three screens of the Imperial 8 Theatre which were in the former Chrysler dealership at 55 Dunlop Street West, now operating as the Uptown Theatre.
The article says that the Imperial 8’s former screens 1 and 2, which were the main floor and balcony of the original Imperial, would be converted into an event center called the Grand Theatre. As the name is on the building today, a renovation was obviously was done, but there is no mention of a Grand Theatre event center on the Internet now, so the business must have failed. I can’t find anything saying that, as the Grand, it ever ran movies.
This article from the August 13, 2016, issue of The Barrie Examiner says that the Imperial Theatre was built next door to the Capitol Theatre in 1937.
The vertical signs of the Imperial and Granada Theatres are prominently displayed in this photo of a parade on Dunlop Street. Harold Hill’s Chrysler dealership at right was in the building now occupied by the Uptown Theatre.
Here is a ca. 1955 photo of the Imperial Theatre marquee and entrance. A bit of the Granada Theatre’s marquee can be seen at left, but is not lit up in this night shot, so perhaps it had closed by then.
This photo of the Imperial is probably from 1977. The Imperial has been twinned, and the Granada has been converted into a restaurant.
Elizabeth St was renamed Dunlop St West in 1960. There is a “Grand Theatre” standing and seemingly unused at 43 Dunlop St West, which used to be part of the Imperial Cinema 8 that also included the current Barrie Uptown Theatre at 55 Dunlop St West.