Regent Theatre
44 King Street East,
Oshawa,
ON
L1H
44 King Street East,
Oshawa,
ON
L1H
2 people
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This is a nice recent photo of the Regent.
Picture of Regent on HeritageOshawa’s website—>
http://www.heritageoshawa.ca/designations.php?id=2
Here are some pictures of the Regent during it’s restoration—>
View link
View link
Both the Regent Theatre website and the Ontario Heritage site that I posted once before, give the opening date as October 16, 1919. Both mention the same architect, “The building was designed by J. McNee Jeffrey, a famous Canadian theatre designer”. Is the correct name J. McNee or J. McNee Jeffrey? Also, the Regent currently has 723 seats.
Here is some additional information. The deadline to open the Regent is December 31, 2008.
The Related Websites link above gives the opening year as 1919. Was it 1919 or 1921 as stated in the introduction?
Brian wrote:
“This theatre looks very similar to the Tivoli Theatre in Hamilton…
I wonder if it was the same architect?”
Brian: The architect for the Regent Theatre in Oshawa was J. McNee.
I have not been able to track down the Tivoli architect on the net.
As far as the local news coverage reported, it would be usable this fall but not fully completed until mid 2009. The new owner has plans to add apartments on the back end of the property where the parking lot is. The original restoration plans were to add meeting rooms and dressing rooms in that location.
I just hope he doesn’t cheap out and paint it the awful gaudy colour the Danforth interior is.. hopefully he follows some of the original design and paint colours.
This theatre looks very similar to the Tivoli Theatre in Hamilton…
I wonder if it was the same architect?
I was in Oshawa yesterday and talked to some of the construction workers at the Regent site. They told me they are fixing up the front and the interior.
That’s great news. Its supposed to be ready by this fall.
I was talking about the new owner (promoter-whatever) who operates the Danforth Music Hall. From what I read in the Toronto Star a while back it read as if he was combining theatre events with other things. When I saw the work being done on the front I thought it was the start of the new renovations…which maybe it IS if it has to be done before the new work can begin.
Whatever is going on……congratulations and good luck to the new owner.I hated seeing the place looking so run down waiting for the city councillors to decide if they wanted to fix it up or wait and build a bigger new arts centre.
Incorrect mjc.. the new owner (who recently purchased it from the City after the Oshawa Folk Arts council threw the towel in due to finally admitting to inexperience in theatre restorations (and who shouldn’t have even touched it in the first place in my opinion)) is investing more than a million dollars to restore it to an 800-seat live theatre/concert hall.
The new owner accomplished the same task when he bought the Danforth Music Hall in Toronto. The scaffolding/covers is due to the deal which states he has until the end of February to remove the ugly blue paint from the front of the building.
I drove by the Regent last week and saw the front of the theatre was covered for what looked like renovation work.
A Toronto promoter is supposed to be fixing the place up as a nightclub/theatre.
Some photos of the Regent can be seen near the bottom of this page.
The Regent Theatre website is currently under construction.
In the meantime please feel free to contact the Project Coordinator to answer any questions you may have about this project.
Adriane Miller
Project Coordinator
50 Centre Street South
Oshawa, ON. L1H 3Z7
(905) 576-3835
www.regenttheatre.ca is the website. The news section is poorly documented with no dates and there is no email to contact the group, but some of the info is not bad. I really want this local theatre to shine once again.
Does anyone have any news on the restoration progress of this theater?