old glory #2

my city has quite a number of old buildings that have been designated as 'heritage' buildings. once in a while whenever time and/or opportunity warrant, i will feature some of them on my album.

on my way from staples to buy ink for my printer, i saw this building across the street. of course, i've "never seen it" before but according to a small plaque on the building it was built in the last part of the 1800's. what attracted me was that there were no windows in the building so i set about to investigate.

"This building houses the Imperial Oil Opera Theatre, and administrative and rehearsal space for the Canadian Opera Company. In 1885, the Consumers Gas Company acquired the land west of Trinity Street and south of Front Street to the railway tracks. The building that presently houses the Imperial Oil Opera Theatre (originally 251 Front St. E.) was built as the Consumers Gas Company's Purifying House No. 2 in 1887-1888 by the architects Strictland and Symens, who designed it in the style of an early Christian basilica. (It has been suggested that the special clerestory roof was built as a self-supporting structure and simply placed on top of the building so that any explosion would raise it without destroying the walls.) It was renovated in the mid 1980's for the Canadian Opera Company." - TO Built website.

the bill outside the building indicates "tristan und isolde" and "salome" among others are some of the offerings for the 2013 season. must go see one of them.

thank you for your kind views and comments; all are appreciated of course!

(the first 'old glory' edition is here: http://365project.org/summerfield/365-still/2013-01-27 )

[Sally Ings]

Beautiful building, lovely colours in the brickwork.

[Sara]

Very interesting shot and story. Thanks for the extra info!

[alia_801]

Great shot of the interesting building - sounds like it's had quite a history too!

[Laraine Kensicki]

architecturally dignified building with a rich history ~

[Pam Hawkes]

Very interesting architecture and historic capture!

[Helge Erik Storheim]

this is so much prettier than the new "glass and steel" buildings. Great shot.

[Terry]

massive structure

[MaryBeth Dailey]

Not only does it not have windows, I don't see any doors! How does one go see the opera!? I loved reading the history of this structure. When I heard it was an opera house,I thought that made sense about the "no windows" thing, but your story said it was an "oil business" building first? Why can't they have windows? And, do oil buildings explode alot? I am just full of questions here! Haha

[Ann H. LeFevre]

So, it does look like it may have windows at one time in the arches, but perhaps they were filled in when it became an opera house? Or maybe there were no windows so that glass could not go flying when said explosion occurred? I don't think I like option 2 that much! lol Good shot!