On the front page of the Thursday, July 19,1928 issue of the Powell River News, a large article states that work started last week on building the new Patricia Theatre for the McLeod-Scanlon Amusements Co. Ltd. So our guess is that the construction started between July 8th to the 14th.
It goes on to say that “a portion of the lumber is on the ground and men and teams are busy preparing the foundation.” I’m wondering if this means teams of horses doing to heavy work of hauling?
It says that the building will cost in the neighbourhood of $30,000 and the equipment will be about $20,000. Local men were to be employed on the building as much as possible. They state that the work will be rushed as fast as possible and the building is expected to be finished in 16 weeks.
The architect was H.H. Simmonds of Vancouver and there is more about him on Day 35. The contracting firm was Smellie and Gallagher of North Vancouver. Now an interesting bit of trivia is that Mr. Gallagher was so impressed by the Powell River town and area that he went back to North Vancouver, packed up his family and moved up to the town as soon as possible. Mr. Gallagher would have been one of the few private contractors in the district. All of the company’s mill buildings, homes and commercial buildings were built by Mill employees. There was likely a good amount of work here for him even though the great depression came soon after his relocation. Members of his family still live in the Powell River area today.
Later in the August 2nd issue of the paper, there was a report of several industries in the area. One was called the Yellow Cedar company and their sawmill was located on Cranberry Lake. The article states that they were in the process of supplying all the lumber for the Patricia Theatre. They were employing 35 men to fill the order and the trees were being cut at Chippewa Bay up Powell Lake.
Friends of the Historic Patricia Theatre 