On the site of a blacksmith shop, the Star Theatre was the first to bring moving pictures to the bustling mountain town of Rossland. Opening in 1908, it ran until 1925, offering both live entertainment and movies.
Since the closing of the theatre, the building has housed a dry goods store, church, grocery store, building supply store, and retail and professional offices. In 1975 Butch Boutry, a local ski champion and one time head coach of the Canadian National Ski Team, opened a ski shop in the building. Today the Butch Boutry Ski Shop is the
longest running business in Rossland under the same name and in the same location.
The Star Theatre building is at the north end of a group of five turn-of-the-century buildings which comprise the oldest such grouping of commercial buildings in Rossland's downtown, all others having been lost to several historic fires.
Star Theatre
From the Heritage Marker at the building
Star Theatre
Description:
The Star Theatre building is a two-storey, flat-roofed, wood framed commercial building with two storefronts at street level dating to 1908. It is part of a grouping of five early commercial buildings located on the eastern side of Washington Street between Columbia Avenue and First Avenue, in the historic downtown of Rossland, BC.
Heritage Value:
The Star Theatre building is an integral part of Rossland’s oldest intact commercial street front. With its four contiguous neighbours to the south, it makes up the only surviving group of commercial buildings to survive fire in Rossland’s downtown. Prior to 1929, fire decimated all other contemporary buildings of this era.
Constructed in 1908 on the site of the former Beverly & Maloney Blacksmith Shop, this modest wood framed building holds significant heritage value. The Star Theatre operated by Samuel Hackney from 1908 to 1925, brought Rossland “moving pictures”. From 1925 to 1975, it housed a dry goods store, church, grocery store, building supply store, and retail and professional offices. Together with the other buildings to the south in this historic grouping, this place is evidence of Rossland’s economic continuum since its earliest days as a city. In 1970, Gustav and Beatrice Rosner purchased the building and divided the bottom floor into two storefronts and added apartments to the upper floor. In 1975, Butch Boutry opened a ski shop in the southern storefront and Dr. D. O’Donaughy opened a dental practice on the northern storefront.
Boutry, a local skiing champion was a member and later head coach of the Canadian National Ski Team, the 1963 Western Canadian Men’s Ski Champion, and coach of the Canadian Disabled Ski Team for three Paralympic Games in the 1980s. Today, the Butch Boutry Ski shop occupies the entire storefront. The continued use as a ski shop is evidence of Rossland’s strong ski culture, and its connections to Red Mountain Resort.
Character-Defining Elements:
- Commercial use of this lot since c. 1898, and of this building since 1908.
- Its situation on its lot, and its relationship to the sidewalk, street, and back alley.
- Its physical relationship to the other buildings within this historic grouping.
- Its two-storey massing, with flat roof, and rectilinear façade.
- Its wood-frame construction.
- Its mixed use, with storefronts at street level and residential units in upper floor.
- Its association with the Butch Boutry Ski Shop.
- From the Rossland Heritage Register