The building, was 75 ft. wide and 198 feet long. The walls were solid brick:

the auditorium being eighteen inches thick and the walls of the stage twenty-one inches thick.

—Lily Worrall Collection

—Lily Worrall Collection

The modern marquee (1930s) of the Capitol Theatre is visible on the right. When the theatre was torn down the original marquee was found inside the more "modern" one.

Alongside the trolley tracks to the left, is a platform to assist passengers

when embarking and disembarking the streetcar trains.

—Lily Worrall Collection

    Second Street looking East to Pitt. A hanging sign has been added to the marquee of the Capitol Theatre (LH).

This new sign advertises the name of the movie.          

    Notice the “Garage” sign beyond the Capital Theatre. The garage was Cornwall Motor Sales.

    On the right of the photo is the Cornwallis Hotel and another Garage sign for Warner’s Garage. 

   There is a “Gasoline” sign east of the Cornwallis, but the sign does not display the Texaco name seen in later cards.

—Lily Worrall Collection

    Incredibly the theatre was torn down. Officials claimed the building was water damaged and beyond repair. These photos taken shortly before demolition show no damage.

    Let’s go back in time, pull open the doors and tour the Capitol Theatre through the photos of John Worrall.

—John Worrall Collection

The ticket boot and doors were made of quarter-sawn oak.

The prices have gone up. At one time admission was 10¢ and later 25¢.

    Notice the brass rail. Patrons entered the space between the rail and the box office.

Kids spoke through the ticket opening at the bottom of the glass.

—John Worrall Collection

Don’t go in that door on the left - it’s the “out” door.

After you have your ticket continue right — to the door on the east side of the ticket booth.

—John Worrall Collection

Now you’re heading in the right direction.

Take a peak in the window - of the ticket booth - you can see the ticket machine!

—John Worrall Collection

Customers were so intent on getting into the theatre they rarely paused to see the interior of the booth.

This big old mechanical machine worked well - dispensing tickets quickly and efficiently.

Note the size of the lightbulb on the countertop.

—John Worrall Collection

Now that we are inside the door - hand your ticket to the ticket taker. He will drop it in this ticket collector.

The ticket taker wears a blue suit with red and gold epaulets and brass buttons.

—John Worrall Collection

The walls of the lobby are grey and have ivory coloured plaster pictures, in a Greek theme, in bas relief.

—John Worrall Collection

Lots of dancing people!

—John Worrall Collection

Wow! Look at the ceiling in this lobby. It’s beautiful!

Thre is a chandelier in the centre and small chandeliers in each corner. Very elegant.

—John Worrall Collection

If you laid on the floor - this is what the ceiling would look like.

Don’t do it though - the doorman might kick us out.

—John Worrall Collection

Another chandelier and more dancing people. They seem to have a few more clothes on...

—John Worrall Collection

If you need a washroom the Ladies is here on the east side, as you go in, the Men’s room is opposite, over there, on the west side. The Ladies room has a sitting room with plush carpet, chairs and a wall of mirror with a wooden counter beneath the mirrors. The washrooms are in separate room beyond the sitting room. Smoking is allowed in the sitting room.

Round black floor-ashtrays with sand in them are provided.

—John Worrall Collection

Let’s go into the theatre. You go up the stairs with a brass rail in the middle - see there is the stage curtain ahead,  down the centre aisle. There are also side aisles on each side. We can sit downstairs or we can go upstairs. There are stairs to the left and right of these steps and they take us to the Boxes which held about 9 seats and had a brass rail around the box. The rest of the seats upstairs were just like those downstairs.

Oh! I forgot the two rows at the back of the downstairs had extra long leg room. They were premium seats and you paid more when the theatre let you reserve seats for a big show - like Ben Hur.

—John Worrall Collection

We’re early. Let’s look around. This is the front west (left) side. With the Exit door. The first stage curtains were blue in colour, in later years they were placed with red. There were curtains covering these exits - they matched the stage curtain.

—John Worrall Collection

This shows a bit more of the left side of the theatre - it is a very long shot. We are up in the Box Seat area, upstairs.

Notice the brass railing in front of the seats. You can see the stage curtain.

Everyone wondered what was up in those little arched windows. We knew the space was empty, but we all liked to imagine there could be seats up there and that someday… we would be invited to sit there.

—John Worrall Collection

We can walk across the front of the theatre...

—John Worrall Collection

...And this is the east (right) side.

Construction of the theatre began May 1, 1927 and it opened 22 Jan 1928.

With a seating capacity of 1,360 seats and a cost of $165,000 ($2,176,084. today) it was a state of the art

facility; more up-to-date than Toronto's Runnymede Theatre with a stage as large as Toronto's Hippodrome.

—John Worrall Collection

The walls of the theatre were divided into  sections, and each section had a golden lyre with leaves and ribbons around it. Above are the golden shell houselights that ran along the length of each side of the theate.

—John Worrall Collection

It was fun to count the lights and admire their rich golden hue

while waiting for the show to begin. 

—John Worrall Collection

There were half pillars along the walls with lights on them. The tops of the pillars had woven baskets of

red flowers and many green leaves at the top. Notice under the basket there are golden hearts.

Hearts and flowers—how romantic!

—John Worrall Collection

On the Landing between the lower and upper sections are Exit doors on the east and west side.

They opened onto the outdoor ramps on each side of the theatre.

It is always a surprise when you step out onto the exit ramps - to see how high you are!

I think these are very elegant Exits don’t you?

—John Worrall Collection

Close-up of the “boss” between the fans over the exit doors.

—John Worrall Collection

These are the decorative “capitals” at the top of the twisted columns

between the double exit doors on either side of the stage.

—John Worrall Collection

Looking at the theatre from front to back. Note the lyres on the wall, the baskets of flowers at the top of each half-pillar, the rope columns which border each wall panel. The side lights hanging on the wall, look like shields from a castle.

(Ten of them, where did they go when the building was demolished?)

There is a lot to look at as you wait for the movie to begin. Upstairs you can see the box seats at the front with their separate entrances off the stairs. Another nice feature is the curved ceiling painted a sky-blue. When the theatre opened, it was billed as an “Atmospheric Theatre.” That meant that if there was a moon and stars on the screen,

a special projector would project stars on the ceiling.

—John Worrall Collection

   Some technical photos behind the scenes.

At right is the back of the “silver screen” with sound speakers facing out to the audience.

—John Worrall Collection

  All those beautiful lights were controlled by this panel.

It takes miles of rope to run the stage of a theatre.

—John Worrall Collection

 In the basement of the theatre were a larger number of number of spare plaster castings.

Where did they go when the building was torn down?

—John Worrall Collection

Beneath the stage of the theatre.

—John Worrall Collection

A small part of the mechanical infrastructure. The theatre was always comfortable. I was told that the theatre was cooled by a very deep drilled well. Fans blew across the ice cold water keeping the theatre cool.

Across the street, the Cornwallis Hotel was said to have the same system for cooling.

—John Worrall Collection

The projection room high up at the back of the theatre

—John Worrall Collection

The projectionist does a fine job of switching from reel to reel so that the movie flows seamlessly from beginning to end.

—John Worrall Collection

In the early years, the theatre was used for live vaudeville shows.

Mirrors and lights and a dressing table were needed with a rack for costumes.

—John Worrall Collection

Above is a composite of three photographs, “stitched” together through the magic of computers. 

In later years, larger more comfortable seating reduced the seating capacity to about 900 seats.

The Freeholder, January 1928 reporting Opening Night :

The main auditorium is of Spanish design, the walls being of California Stucco Sponge finish with pilasters of Travertine stone capped with baskets of flowers bordered with rope columns. The ceiling is of concave design decorated in turquoise blue with concealed cove lighting with cornices finished in gold and ivory and frieze interspersed with shells finished in mother-of-pearl with rich golden background in which there is concealed an orange amber light.

—John Worrall Collection

LAST ONE TO LEAVE TURN OUT THE LIGHTS.