NDG's Empress Theatre survived a century of change. Can it survive neglect?

Montreal's last (and Canada's only) Egyptian Revival movie palace reinvented itself for decades. Now it's been empty for 33 years.

Kaitlyn DiBartolo

7 novembre 2025- Read time: 5 min

The Empress Theatre's Egyptian Revival facade on Sherbrooke Street, where two carved sphinxes have watched over Montreal since 1927. The building has been empty since a fire in 1992. | Photograph: D. Benjamin Miller

Saunter down Sherbrooke Street and it will stop you in your tracks: the Empress Theatre, the only known remaining Egyptian Revival movie palace in Canada.

Built in 1927 and opened shortly thereafter (circa 1928), the historical building stoically looms above passersby who look up from the perpetual city bustle to the eyes of its two stone carved sphynxes, who observe the city from their perches atop its columns.

The Empress Theatre was designed by Quebecois architect Joseph-Alcide Chaussé with interiors by the Maltese-born Montreal artist Emmanuel Briffa, who also designed Montreal’s beloved Rialto Theatre on Parc among the many others.

In the beginning, the Empress Theatre was a glamorous movie palace that reflected the golden age of cinema, an era that Montreal particularly had a stake in. It was a mainstay of its time for Sherbrooke Street, one of the main arteries that runs through Montreal that has historically kept the city’s artistic blood coursing. Throughout time, it joined a litany of museums, art galleries, and music venues that served Montrealers.

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