Oshawa City Council has announced that it intends to designate a property of cultural heritage value at King Street East.
The property, municipally known as 39 King Street East, is 0.05 hectares (0.13 acre) in size, containing a commercial building operating as a live music and entertainment venue known as the Biltmore Theatre. The property is situated on the south side of King Street East between Celina Street and Albert Street.
It has design/physical value as the commercial building thereon, the Biltmore Theatre, is representative of the Art Deco style, including a street-facing façade featuring a smooth cut stone finish. Within the upper portion of the front façade are narrow recessed window openings, two circular recessed markings adjacent to the center and right window openings, and an original octagonal thermometer on the column between the centre and left window openings. The front dual entranceway is in its original location at the west-most point of the street-facing façade, said the announcement.
The reason why the property at 39 King Street East is being designated as a property of cultural heritage is due to having a direct association with the affluent Okun Brothers, who owned the Biltmore Chain Theatres in Ontario. Oshawa’s Biltmore Theatre was the first of five theatres constructed in Ontario by the Okun Brothers. It has served as a theatre or an entertainment venue for over 70 years in Downtown Oshawa.