Love the old picture show? Move to the Majestic
AMOVIE THEATRE called the Majestic opened on the main drag of Dundas nearly 90 years ago. If you climbed the terrazzo stairs off the lobby, you could enjoy the show from the balcony. But the screen went dark around Easter 1961, after a final showing of “The Ten Commandments.”
Soon, however, that historic stairway to theatre heaven will be used again — by tenants of the new Majestic Apartments. It’s another venture for the people downstairs, Neil and Denise Gloster, who opened the Horn of Plen-
ty bulk food store 37 years ago.
“People would ask, ‘What’s upstairs?’” Neil says. “And I’d tell them, ‘Five thousand square of feet of potential.’ We should have done this a long time ago.”
THE MAJESTIC, known as The Roxy through the ’50s, couldn’t compete with all the free entertainment that television was suddenly beaming into every home. The theatre, built solid with a handsome yellow-brick facade, did get a second life as the Safari Club, a place with African animal trophy heads on the walls.
But by the early ’80s, the building was looking for someone to love it again.
Denise was a dietician, Neil a buyer at McMaster and bored with his job. They opened Horn of Plenty in 1980 in rented quarters in downtown Dundas and it was a success from Day 1. They stocked more product, needed more space.
“I’m not moving here. This is awful,” said Denise, when they first toured the dark, musty innards of the Majestic.
But it was the only place for sale then. They bought it for $98,000 and spent at least that much again renovating the premises. That was 1984.
But retailing is tougher now. Unlike the early days, the Horn of Plenty’s bulk-food and health supplements competition is now everywhere — Fortinos, Shoppers Drug Mart, Amazon.
They used to sell Birkenstock sandals. But it got so that people would come in, find the size that fit best, then go home and order them online.
So the business, now owned by Denise and Neil’s son Jason, is evolving. There’s lots of prepared food, and soon the back end of the store will become a coffee shop called Grupetto. One of the principals, Krys Hines, used to run the popular Café Domestique around the corner in a house on Miller’s Lane.
Here, the coffee will come from Grupetto. If someone orders food, it will arrive from the Horn of Plenty kitchen/bakery up front.
And now Neil and Denise are inspired to do something with that long-ignored space above. We climb the stairs, along with Kaj Devai, the architect hired to pull this together.
We’re up in the balcony. The seats are gone, but the entire original theatre ceiling is still in place.
We climb to the top, past heartshaped declarations of long-ago love carved in the wall. JL loves JF.
This is the projectionist’s booth. His ancient rheostat dimmer is still on the wall, the one he used to lower the lights to let the magic begin. His toilet and little sink are still in place.
The theatre wasn’t built with a full second floor. The Glosters installed that when they moved in. Now, the job is to remove the stepped portion of the balcony and build six apartments along the length of this 117-foot building.
Some units will have balconies out onto the side lane. The two at the front, likely renting for $2,200 a month or more, will be two-level with windows onto the main street.
And now Neil and Denise are inspired to do something with that long-ignored space above.
The goal is to have tenants moving in late next year.
It’s a big project, with a budget of nearly $900,000.
But this is precisely the kind of intensification downtowns everywhere are trying to achieve. It’s a throwback to times past, when people lived above stores, when they walked to the shops and yes, when they went to the movies.