Canada Designates Four New National Historic Sites

Port Hope Capitol Theatre.

Canada has designated four new sites to its national list of historic places, including one of the first theaters for “talking” movies and a private club in Victoria, British Columbia.

The Port Hope Capitol Theatre, which opened in 1930, was one of the first theatres in Canada designed specifically to present “Talkies.” Designed by Canadian architect Murray Brown, the theater was “decorated to give patrons the impression of being in a romantic outdoor amphitheatre,” Canada’s Ministry for Parks said in a press release.

Port Hope, Ontario, is a small town on the shores of Lake Ontario, about 100 kilometers east of Toronto. The theatre sits on Queen Street, one of the town’s main thoroughfares, in a row of commercial and residential buildings.

The Union Club of British Columbia was established in 1879, and is based on a members-only, private club prototype originating in Britain and popularized in Canada during the late 19th and early 20th century. Since 1913, the club has been housed in an elegant building in the heart of Victoria. After its formation in 1879, the Union Club of British Columbia quickly developed as a home-away-from-home for politicians, civil servants, military officers, professionals, and the press.

The second-oldest building in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, the Marr Residence, constructed in 1884, reflects the experiences and conditions of the first major European settlement in the area. Marr Residence is the only survivor of three houses that were part of a field hospital established during the North-West Rebellion of 1885.

Alexander and Margaret Marr, and their children, were among the first European settlers to arrive at the site in the spring of 1883. Their house, the eighth or ninth to be built in the new community, was begun in the summer of 1884, with lumber floated downriver from Medicine Hat. The one-and-a-half story, wood-frame house, was one of the largest in the village at the time of its construction when completed.

Montgomery Place in Saskatoon was built in 1945 and is an excellent and intact illustration of the Veterans’ Land Act communities established following the Second World War. The Veterans’ Land Act of 1942 was a key element of the Veterans’ Charter which provided most veterans, ex-servicemen and women, and the disabled with a wide range of benefits later extended to veterans of the Korean War. Its main goal was to provide veterans with the means to become financially independent after their return to civilian life and it included assistance to build their own homes.

Montgomery Place was built on 230 acres of previously rural land in Cory County, as a residential subdivision adjacent to the city of Saskatoon. From an initial 28 homes, Montgomery Place has grown to encompass approximately 900 residences, 2 schools, one church and 4 parks in a clearly-defined residential subdivision on the southwest edge of the city of Saskatoon.