Chinese Bible Church on Richmond is up for sale

WCA member Wallace Beaton spotted a for sale sign on the Chinese Bible Church at 381 Richmond Road.

FYI - it's going for a cool two million. Here's a real-estate listing, complete with photo.

Believe it or not, it used to be a theatre.

Here's a bit of the backstory from an email from Heritage Ottawa VP, David Jeanes.

"The Westboro Theatre, (3 photos in the book), at 381 Richmond Road, opened in 1941 and closed in 1955. It was a basic little auditorium building with a 494-seat faintly art deco interior. There was a taxi dispatch office at the front for Westboro taxi, a poster display case, a box office window, and the front door facing the street with a black and white tile façade and a flat neon sign instead of a marquee.

The theatre had no stage and was just for second-run movies. It was built as a labour of love by Ben Stapleton, who also built the once-majestic Centre Theatre on Sparks Street."

(This info is from a book by Alain Miguelez, “A Theatre Near You: 150 Years of Going to the Show in Ottawa Gatineau”, Penumbra Press, 2004, pages 246-249.)