Amidst Toronto’s ultra-modern skyline, you can still find true portals to the past. One of them is located at 189 Yonge Street. From the outside, it looks like a grand, albeit typical, early 20th-century building. Inside, however, lies an architectural marvel unmatched anywhere in the world: the only operating double-decker theatre complex left on earth—the Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre.
Its history reads like a fairy tale. It’s a story of a “sleeping beauty” that woke up after 60 years, of one-of-a-kind architecture, and even of how raw bread dough helped save the arts, as noted by toronto-trend.
The Birth of an Idea, or Two Theatres for the Price of One
The complex’s story began in 1913, back when Toronto’s population hovered just over 200,000. Theatre mogul Marcus Loew—founder of the legendary theatre chain and future pioneer of MGM studios—decided to build his flagship Canadian venue here. To bring this ambitious vision to life, he hired New York architect Thomas Lamb, a renowned master of designing grand “movie palaces.”
Lamb proposed what was then a revolutionary concept: building two theatres stacked directly on top of each other. This ingenious design maximized the use of prime, expensive downtown real estate. Only about a dozen of these double-decker complexes were ever built worldwide, making the Canadian project the only one of its kind outside the US. By utilizing a heavy steel frame, Lamb was able to create massive interior spaces with cantilevered balconies. This meant there were no pillars to obstruct the view—a construction technique that would eventually become the gold standard for all modern cinemas.
Despite sharing the same building, the two theatres have completely contrasting vibes. This was a deliberate part of Loew’s clever marketing strategy. The Elgin Theatre (originally known as Loew’s Yonge Street Theatre) catered to the general public. It offered continuous vaudeville shows and early silent films at a highly accessible price point.
The upper theatre, The Winter Garden, sat seven stories higher and acted as an exclusive, elite venue. It only opened its doors in the evening, tickets came at a premium, and the atmosphere was specifically designed to whisk patrons away from the hustle and bustle of Toronto into a tranquil, fairy-tale garden.
The Elgin: Gold, Velvet, and Edwardian Grandeur
The lower theatre, the Elgin, is the absolute epitome of classic luxury. Architect Lamb spared no expense on gold leaf (real gold leaf, at that!), ornate plasterwork, and rich red velvet. The auditorium was designed in an elegant Italian Renaissance style, beautifully accented with touches of Edwardian classicism.
Massive mirrors in the lobby, sweeping crystal chandeliers, and opulent box seats created a festive, grand atmosphere before the show even began. It was heavily marketed as a theatre “for everyone,” yet every patron who walked through the doors felt like royalty. For decades, the Elgin remained the complex’s powerhouse stage, seamlessly transitioning from a bustling vaudeville venue into a prestigious movie house.
The Winter Garden: A Fairy Tale Frozen in Time
But the real jaw-dropper came when patrons took the elevator—or walked up the sweeping grand staircase—to the Winter Garden. If the Elgin was the ultimate “urban” theatre, the Winter Garden was a magical “forest” retreat.
It was a masterpiece of whimsical botanical design. The ceiling was completely draped with real beech leaves, which were harvested from Ontario forests, dried, soaked in glycerine to preserve them, and then painted in vibrant shades of green and gold. Over 5,000 beech branches formed a dense canopy over the audience, creating a breathtaking illusion of sitting in a night garden.
The walls featured stunning hand-painted watercolour murals depicting blooming gardens, trellises, birds, and ivy-wrapped columns. Even the structural support pillars were cleverly disguised as tree trunks. The lighting was carefully designed to mimic the soft, flickering glow of fireflies and park lanterns. It was a visual spectacle that simply had no equal.
The Golden Age of Vaudeville and 60 Years of Neglect
Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the complex hosted some of the biggest stars of the era. Entertainment legends like George Burns and Gracie Allen, Sophie Tucker, Milton Berle, and Edgar Bergen all graced these stages. Audiences would frequently make a day of it, coming in to watch a diverse series of variety acts interspersed with short silent films.
However, technological progress was relentless. In 1927, “talkies” (movies with sound) arrived in Toronto, and vaudeville’s popularity took a massive hit. For the lower theatre, this wasn’t a problem; it was easily retrofitted into a standard cinema. But the Winter Garden, with its complicated acoustics and highly specific “living garden” atmosphere, suddenly found itself obsolete.
Instead of sinking money into overhauling this one-of-a-kind space, management made a bizarre but ultimately fateful decision: they simply locked the doors to the Winter Garden and walked away.
For roughly 60 years, the upper theatre remained completely sealed off. There was no heating, no lighting—just a thick, heavy layer of dust slowly blanketing every painted leaf and velvet seat. While the Elgin downstairs packed in crowds for Hollywood blockbusters, an entire era slept soundly above them. Ironically, it was exactly this abandonment that preserved the Winter Garden in its pristine, original state. While most theatres of that period were gutted, modernized, or torn down entirely, this hidden auditorium became an incredible time capsule.
Downstairs, the Elgin soldiered on as a movie theatre. But with each passing decade, it fell further into disrepair. By the 1970s, the once-glorious movie palace had been relegated to screening B-movies and adult films. The beautiful opera boxes were unceremoniously ripped out to make room for a wider movie screen—which, as it turned out, was never even installed properly. The final film shown in the decaying old Elgin was What the Swedish Butler Saw.
The Great Revival and the “Bread” Restoration
Salvation finally arrived in 1981 when the Ontario Heritage Trust purchased the building for $4.6 million, saving it from the wrecking ball. Interestingly, even before the official restoration kicked off, the dilapidated Elgin hosted a wildly successful, two-year run of the musical Cats. It became the most successful theatrical event in Canadian history up to that point, proving beyond a doubt that the venue still had plenty of life left in it.
In 1984, a massive $29 million restoration project officially began. It would go down as one of the most complex, ambitious heritage recovery projects ever undertaken in North America.
The restoration team immediately hit a massive hurdle: how do you clean the delicate watercolour murals in the Winter Garden without destroying them? Traditional chemical cleaners would have simply dissolved the historic paint.
Their solution was as brilliant as it was unorthodox: raw bread dough. Thousands of pounds of fresh dough were gently pressed against the walls. Acting like a giant sponge, the dough lifted away 60 years of thick soot and dust without harming a single drop of pigment. It was painstaking, surgical work that successfully brought the walls back to their vibrant 1913 colours.
The beech branches on the ceiling required similarly meticulous care. Every single branch was carefully removed, cleaned by hand, and treated with a modern fire-retardant solution. While about 30% of the dried leaves had to be replaced, the vast majority are the original ones—the exact same canopy that audiences gazed up at before the outbreak of World War I.
During the overhaul, architect Mandel Sprachman also designed a 65,000-square-foot expansion. This included an eight-story backstage pavilion fully equipped with modern dressing rooms, wardrobe areas, and rehearsal halls.
Treasures and Archaeological Finds
The restoration process yielded several astonishing discoveries. Hidden away in the Winter Garden, crews uncovered the world’s largest surviving collection of vaudeville scenery. The stash included over 125 hand-painted backdrops and flat sets dating all the way back to 1913. Today, several of these historic pieces—including the iconic “Butterfly” and “Scarab” drops—are proudly displayed for visitors to see.
Archaeologists working on the site also dug up more than 500 19th-century artifacts from beneath the foundation. The haul included ceramic and glass dishware, offering a fascinating glimpse into daily life in Toronto long before the theatre was ever built.
The Theatre’s Modern Life
On December 15, 1989—exactly 76 years to the day after its original grand opening—the beautifully restored complex opened its doors once again. Today, it is far from just a museum; it is a living, breathing cultural hub. It frequently hosts premium screenings for the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), world premieres of major musicals (such as Napoleon), television shoots (including Late Night with Conan O’Brien), and even serves as a backdrop for blockbuster movies, like Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning The Shape of Water.
Still owned and operated by the Ontario Heritage Trust, the theatres seamlessly blend their mission of preserving history with acting as a state-of-the-art venue for operas, live concerts, stand-up comedy, and high-profile charity galas.
The restored terracotta facade, a dazzling marquee lit by 1,240 bulbs, and the iconic “Loew’s” sign—visible once again to everyone strolling down Yonge Street—serve as a daily reminder that true art and architectural grandeur can survive almost anything. The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre remains a point of deep Canadian pride, a magical place where history steps back into the spotlight every single night.
Legends, Ghosts, and a Gangster’s Chair
What’s a historic theatre without a few good ghost stories? The Elgin and Winter Garden is absolutely steeped in urban legends. The most famous is the tale of the “Lavender Lady.” She is said to be the spirit of a woman who tragically died in or near the theatre during its early operating years. Over the decades, actors and cleaning staff have repeatedly reported catching strong whiffs of lavender in empty hallways, and some have even spotted a strange figure in a long period dress lingering in the Winter Garden’s private boxes.
Another wild piece of lore involves the infamous American gangster John Dillinger. During the 1980s restoration, the Trust acquired a batch of vintage seats from Chicago’s Biograph Theater for the Winter Garden. According to legend, one of those very chairs is the exact seat Dillinger was sitting in just minutes before he was gunned down by FBI agents in the alleyway outside.
One more quirky detail you shouldn’t miss: the hand-operated elevators. They are among the oldest working elevators in Canada, and they are still manually run by operators to this day. Taking a ride in one of these vintage cabs from the lower theatre up to the Winter Garden is practically a rite of passage for local history buffs.
Tips for Visitors
- Book a guided tour. Even if you aren’t catching a live show, the Ontario Heritage Trust runs regular guided tours. It is hands down the best way to see both auditoriums in all their glory and hear the finer details of the famous “bread dough restoration.”
- Take in the details. When you’re in the Elgin, be sure to look up at the ceiling—it’s adorned with a small fortune in real gold leaf. Up in the Winter Garden, see if you can spot the hidden birds and insects carefully painted into the nature murals.
- Make a day of it. The theatre is located right in the bustling heart of the downtown core, just steps away from the Eaton Centre. This makes it incredibly easy to pair your theatre visit with a broader stroll around the city.
The Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre is much more than just prime real estate on Yonge Street. It is the beating heart of old Toronto, still pulsing to the rhythm of a modern metropolis. It’s a place where a fairy-tale garden under a roof became a reality—one that we are incredibly lucky to still experience today.
