Venue
881 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K7
881 Granville Street,
Vancouver,
BC
V6Z 1K7
1 person
favorited this theater
Additional Info
Previously operated by: Odeon Theatres (Canada) Ltd.
Architects: Thomas L. Kerr
Styles: Streamline Moderne
Previous Names: Maple Leaf Electric Theatre, Plaza Theatre, Odeon Theatre, Plaza Club
Nearby Theaters
Opened as the Maple Leaf Electric Theatre on March 17, 1908. Following a remodel by architect Thomas L. Kerr it became the Plaza Theatre on September 2, 1936 with William Powell in “Escapade”. This 925-seat movie house was renamed the Odeon on March 20, 1963, when it was acquired by the theatre chain of the same name.
Closed in 1991, the Odeon was reopened in 1997, but within a year, was closed once more.
In 1999, the former theatre was converted into a two-level nightclub/live performance space, its marquee retained, called the Plaza Club. Renovations were carried out in the Summer of 2009, and it reopened as The Venue, a nightclub and concert venue. It was closed around 2020 and the building stands vacant in 2023.
Contributed by
Bryan Krefft
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Recent comments (view all 19 comments)
Plaza opened Wednesday, September 2 1936
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=jPRlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=FYkNAAAAIBAJ&pg=3363%2C30387
September 1st, 1936 grand opening ad can be found at the photo section.
October 15, 1973 photo added credit Vancouver Archives CVA 800-0438.
This opened on March 17th, 1908 as the Maple Leaf Electric Theatre.
Maple Leaf Electric Theatre opening Tue, Mar 17, 1908 – Page 10 · Vancouver Daily World (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
September 1st, 1936
Plaza theatre opening Tue, Sep 1, 1936 – 5 · The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
Reopened as the Odeon theatre on March 20th, 1963
Reopened as Plaza by Famous Players on March 18th, 1988
Dunbar, Plaza, and Varsity reopenings Fri, Mar 18, 1988 – 75 · The Vancouver Sun (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) · Newspapers.com
^^ I was at the 2:45 PM showing of Police Academy 5 at the Plaza on March 18 1988.
Multiple Vancouver theatre images in below Flickr link.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/99915476@N04/sets/72157636305761336/
I’ve seen photos posted on Google of the interior of the theatre when it was the Venue nightclub, but I sometimes wonder what it looked like inside during its cinema days. Shame that it’s been sitting boarded up for over three years since Venue closed and I fear it could end up undergoing “demolition by neglect”, as some other older buildings in Vancouver ended up being fated to experience (like the building on East Hastings that once housed the Only Seafood restaurant, which underwent a similar fate when it was boarded up after the restaurant closed and was left to sit and crumble until it was eventually torn down at some point around 2021).