Capitol Theatre battle lives on 40 years later
Fight to save heritage building filled with regrets on both sides
If the Capitol Theatre demolition can be considered a knife to the gut of Saskatoon heritage supporters, a twist of the blade — and of the story — came three days later.
A story on the front page of the Dec. 4, 1979 edition of The Starphoenix revealed that the provincial government had intended to negotiate a land swap with Princeton Developments Ltd. to save the Capitol.
Alas, the wrecking ball had already swung on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 1, 1979, 40 years ago this month.
Saskatoon NDP MLA Peter Prebble told Starphoenix reporter Dene Creswell the province was prepared to offer a liquor store on First Avenue downtown for the Capitol property that fronted Second Avenue.
“We did not realize that demolition would start at the weekend ... especially on the Saturday ... we had hoped to sit down and talk with Princeton people before the week was out,” Prebble told Creswell.
The province never got the chance to offer the land swap proposal to Princeton. The demolition that began on Dec. 1 had knocked a hole in the back of the theatre that, according to Creswell, “ended all chances of a reprieve for the Capitol.”
Creswell’s Dec. 3 story noted the theatre telephone was still working on Sunday.
Princeton exercised an option to buy the property on Nov. 30, 1979, with the intent of building a $25-million twin tower office-retail complex. That complex is now called Scotia Centre.
The provincial government had also granted city council the power to postpone demolition of the Capitol until May 31, 1980.
Saskatoon alderman Dave Whalley introduced just such a motion the week before the Capitol demolition. Whalley wanted council to vote on a $7,000 study to explore alternative uses for the Capitol Theatre building.
But council deferred a decision on the study for a week. That gave Princeton the opportunity to begin demolishing the theatre and silence any debate on its future.
Whalley was quoted in the Saturday, Dec. 1, 1979 edition of The Starphoenix about his intention to keep up the fight to save the 50-year-old theatre. He said he thought the developer was moving fast to demolish the theatre because of Whalley’s effort to save it.
“I may have lost Round 1 and 2 of the fight, but this is a 15-round bout,” Whalley said. “Here we are, elected representatives of the people of Saskatoon with an issue that I believe should have been dealt with by city council ... and we have not been given that opportunity.”
The irony of Whalley’s words resonates today. By the time residents read about his determination to keep fighting, the lethal blow had already been delivered.
Gerry Mckee stayed quiet about his role in the loss of the city’s treasured, grand 1,600-seat theatre for nearly 40 years. In September, he called The Starphoenix to set the record straight after seeing a story on efforts to resurrect the Capitol by rebuilding part of it using artifacts set aside in 1979.
Mckee wanted to clarify that the demolition by his company had started at 8 a.m., not 6 a.m. as was reported in The Starphoenix on Monday, Dec. 3, 1979.
He also wanted to point out that Jim Byers, whose Daylight Theatre Company sold the Capitol to Princeton, helped to save as many artifacts as he could. Demolition was halted for 10 days so those who wanted to preserve parts of the Capitol could salvage as much as possible.
Mckee said in September that he recalled meeting with representatives from Edmonton-based Princeton inside the theatre the week prior to demolition.
“I said in the front row that night that I’m going to live with this for a long time,” Mckee recalled. “Here we are 40 years later and it’s still news.”
The theatre stretched from Second Avenue, where the entrance and marquee were located, to First Avenue, where the demolition began. Starting the demolition at the rear of the theatre meant that the entrance and marquee were spared.
Today, remnants of the theatre are scattered throughout the city. Some are located in City of Saskatoon storage facilities. Others, like the chandeliers, have been leased out and are hanging in the Hose & Hydrant Pub, a former fire station.
The marquee sits outdoors, battered by the elements inside a city storage yard. The Saskatoon Heritage Society has catalogued 116 artifacts from the 1929 theatre.
A city council committee in September endorsed the idea from the Saskatoon Heritage Society to explore resurrecting part of the theatre. The idea will be considered as part of the effort to identify a downtown entertainment district that will include a new arena.
Former Saskatoon alderwoman Helen Hughes recalled in September the rush to try to preserve whatever could be saved from the Capitol.
“It was a race, there’s no doubt,” Hughes said from Victoria.
The Capitol demolition took many in the city by surprise. Efforts to save the Capitol, which opened on May 11, 1929, began as soon as Princeton’s interest in the property became known in February 1979.
Don Kerr, who was then president of the Saskatoon Heritage Society, told The Starphoenix in December 1979 that the developers were “quite insensitive by allowing no sendoff” for the grand old building.
As for Princeton, the original plan called for a skywalk to connect the Scotia Centre to the Midtown Plaza. Specifically, the skywalk was supposed to connect to what was then Eaton’s, but is now The Bay.
Princeton was prepared to build the $500,000 skywalk on its own, but could not come to an agreement with Midtown Plaza.
The skywalk was scrapped and, despite big plans for developing the south downtown, Princeton’s Saskatoon dreams never became reality.
Princeton first expressed an interest in Block 146, where the Scotiabank Theatre complex is now located, in the late 1980s. City hall had assembled land on the block with the intent of encouraging development, but it stalled for decades.
In 1997, Princeton again tried to acquire both Block 146 and the riverside Gathercole Site, which is better known today as Parcel Y. Princeton successfully bought Block 146, but plans to develop both sites collapsed.
The Princeton plan, ironically, would have included a theatre complex. Eventually, the theatre complex was completed in 2006, but Princeton’s vision of a larger development was never realized.
In 1997, Princeton chief executive John Ferguson told The Starphoenix he realized his company would always be known as the developer that tore down the Capitol.
“We made the mistake of buying it first and seeing the real estate afterwards,” Ferguson said in a 1997 interview. “I walked into the Capitol Theatre and said, ‘Oh, my God. What have we bought?’
I could see there was a potential heritage problem.”
Kerr wrote a letter to the editor in 2005 to note the irony of city hall assistance in Princeton’s development of the theatre complex downtown. City council not only awarded Princeton a five-year tax break, but made a controversial decision to halt the building of theatre complexes outside downtown.
“Keep smiling history lovers,” Kerr’s letter says. “If you don’t smile, you’ll cry.”