The Empress Theatre Fort Macleod keeps something most cinemas paint over, the graffiti that visiting performers left in its original dressing rooms. Alberta’s heritage entry lists it as a defining feature, right next to the brick front and the balcony.
You will find the theatre at 235 24 Street, in a two-storey brick building from 1912. The Province of Alberta recognized it as a Provincial Historic Resource on March 10, 1982, and it joined the Canadian Register of Historic Places on September 6, 2006.
A plain front with a fancy inside
The outside was kept modest to suit the main street, built with locally made brick and topped by a curved parapet. Inside, the Empress was considered first class. It seats about 400, with plush chairs and Tiffany-style lamps. Look up and you will spot a neon tulip on the ceiling.
Before television, this was the gathering room for the region. Vaudeville acts, community plays, concerts, lectures, meetings and political rallies all took the stage. The glory days came in the early 1940s, when wartime entertainment spending ran high and the interior got a rich refit. Today it is exclusively a movie theatre, and the projection booth still holds a period projector. A round oculus window lights the booth.
The marquee has a paper trail
In 2016 Alberta’s heritage team studied the paint on the marquee. Layers of black, white, red, yellow, orange and brown turned up. A neon marquee had replaced the original blade sign by 1930, and a 1953 photo shows an Air Conditioned neon sign over the entrance.
The evidence could not pin down the 1950s look, so the team picked rehabilitation instead of restoration. The plan called for bright yellow letters on a dark brown sign with orange edges, painted right over the old layers so future conservators can still read them.
Film crews know this part of Alberta too. Fort Macleod appears among the locations in our look at The Last of Us shooting across Alberta, and it is one of the communities on the Interstellar location list. For another heritage cinema from the same era, read about the Plaza Theatre in Calgary.
Take the register entry along on your visit and tick off the oculus window, the tulip and the dressing room graffiti.
Quick answers
The Empress Theatre in Fort Macleod, Alberta was built in 1912 as a two-storey brick theatre. It was recognized as a Provincial Historic Resource on March 10, 1982, and listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places on September 6, 2006.
The Empress Theatre is at 235 24 Street in Fort Macleod, Alberta, on the historic main street. The heritage register describes it as the last remaining theatre in town and an important part of the street’s historic character.
Yes. The Empress is a Provincial Historic Resource in Alberta and is listed on the Canadian Register of Historic Places. Its heritage value includes the brick front, the balcony, original dressing rooms with performer graffiti, a neon ceiling tulip and a period projector.
Sources: Empress Theatre, Canadian Register of Historic Places and In Search of Historic Colours, Alberta Culture heritage blog. Photo by Kkiefuik, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
