A group of volunteers and community members is raising money to restore its historic Roxy Theatre in Crowsnest Pass.
Fred Bradley, a member of the building committee for Revive the Roxy Theatre says the building has been empty for 20 years.
“We think a revived Roxy would be a catalyst for the community, not only as a preforming arts centre, but as a catalyst of economic revival in downtown Coleman,” said Bradley.
“It’s going to provide an opportunity for many of our local community groups to have performances on stage, we have acting groups, we have the Crowsnest Pass symphony, one of the oldest orchestras in Canada, our music festival,” he explained.
“And really important is for our youth; we’ll be putting on programing to engage youth in activities in the revived theatre.”
The Roxy Theatre is one of 12 heritage sites in the running for Canada’s Next Great Save. It’s a national competition, which would provide a $50,000 contribution to the winner with the most votes online.
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Finalists in the running include the Nanton Grain Elevators in Alberta, Welland Central Fire Station in Ontario, Cape Bear Lighthouse and Marconi Station in Prince Edward Island and St. Andrew’s Lodge in British Columbia.
Crowsnest CanDo, a local organization in the Pass helping to create recreational and cultural improvements in the community took on the Roxy project in 2020 and have since raised $500,000 to stabilize the foundation of the building.
CanDo president Tim Juhlin explains that if they were to win the grand prize, they would use the money for restoring its historic façade on the exterior, including the neon sign, the Pepsi mural, brick work, fixing the doors and the aluminum cladding.
However, there’s still much work to be done in the interior as well.
“Inside here of course we have many different projects that are required such as new insulation, new siding inside here, an HVAC system, so we’re just plugging along, we don’t know how long it’ll take but we’re trying,” laughed Juhlin.
The Roxy Theatre was built back in 1948 following a devastating fire that destroyed the previous venue, Coleman’s Palace Theatre.
For 35 years it was run by a local family, with Brian Dobek sharing some of the cherished memories he had of his father and uncles’ operation at the Roxy.
“Our families together had 15 children, and we all worked here in the theatre,” said Dobek.
“The very first show he ran was called Thirteen Ghosts, and he hired a guy to run around with a sheet over his head saying, ‘Thirteen Ghosts at the Roxy Theatre’, and dad said people were lined up so far you couldn’t see the end of the line of people coming into the theatre,” added Dobek.
It later closed in 2003 due to a waning in the local industry and has remained empty ever since, however the unique theatre is one of the last of it’s kind standing.
Donald Budgen, treasurer for Crowsnest CanDo says “We call it a Quonset theatre, this theatre is one of three theatres that is still existing in Canada. There’s one in Wainwright, there is this one, and one in Victoria.”
Online votes are being collected for the Next Great Save until May 7, and if the Roxy Theatre is chosen as the winner, an anonymous donor has pledged to match the $50,000 donation.
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