Exploring and Rediscovering the Abandoned Tivoli Theatre Hamilton

Exploring and Rediscovering the Abandoned Pokemon Theatre this abandoned theatre dates back to the early 1900’s and the last show here was Pokemon Live

Just when I thought this years locations couldn’t get any better, a classic exploring location opens itself up to us!

After having not been explored (as far as I know) for 10 years my friends Rinzler, TrixieSparrow and I decided to give it a try and we could not have been happier to find her open to us.

As we entered the pitch black empty space, we pulled out our flashlights to illuminate a huge musty space, rows upon rows of red felt chairs, decaying walls, a huge painted ceiling and two beautiful stone statues watching over the stage.

The air was hot and thick and at least 14 years of water damage and elements have taken a serious toll on this place.







This building dates back to the late 1800’s and became a theatre in the early 1900’s. It saw many different uses over the years from live vaudeville acts, a nickelodeon, movies and live stage shows until the early 2000-s when it was forced to close due to severe damage.

This Abandoned Theatre dates back to 1875 and has housed a carriage factory, live vaudeville acts, a storefront, nickelodeon, movies and live stage shows. It was closed in 2004 after a portion of the building collapsed. Although the lobby was demolished, the auditorium remains, and is about to be included in a condominium project that was given the green light by the city earlier this week.

The building was first constructed as a carriage factory in 1875, but by 1908 was established as the first in a sequence of theatres. The abandoned theatre became a prominent vaudeville and motion picture venue and was noted for being the first cinema in the area to present movies with soundtracks

I would end up visiting this theatre 3 times over the course of less than one week, on our first visit we looked everywhere for the lights and how to turn them on. We were not able to locate the lights so we would have to utilize what lights we had. On my second visit I finally discovered how to turn the lights on the entire experience changed for me. To experience this huge space with full lights made the experience so much better. On my first and second visit I filmed a simple walkthrough video without narration to give people a chance to walk through and experience the abandoned theatre just as I did when i first stepped inside: It seemed that one of the last shows at this abandoned theatre was Pokemon Live as in the lobby we discovered a pile of props – life-sized Pokemon characters….what a strange find

A 3rd visit just for the hell of it so I could capture some more details and more video footage and finally one last visit with Carlo Paolozza and RiddimRyder

STORIES OF HAUNTINGS AT THE ABANDONED THEATRE

A man who was the theatre owner in the early 1900’s owned multiple buildings, one of those that he owned was this theatre.

In the year 1919 the man signed away all his theatres for $1.7 million ($243 million in today’s money). He walked out of this meeting, went shopping, met with his lawyer… then nobody saw him again.

“Victorian Homeless Dude”

During the renovations of this theater in the 1990’s, staff started seeing a homeless man inside the building. They thought a man got in and was hiding, telling the manager many times. He found nobody. A week later he had to become the detective.

Sitting down with the witnesses, he asked, “what’s the man look like?” The answer was strange…

“He’s wearing an old fashion suit, a bowler hat and has an curled mustache”

They started calling him the “Victorian homeless dude”. The manager knew the theaters history, went over to the Library and borrowed a book on the Canadian theatre.

Then showing each witness the picture of a man. They all said, “That’s the dude!” The picture was of the man who used to own the theater.

“A skeleton”

A small storage room was revealed inside the courtyard during renovations in 1995. It was a theatre nerd’s dream, dusty steamer trunks filled with posters, reels and vaudeville props, and in the back dustier more rusted out trunk.

Dragged out and pried open, inside they found what looked like a human skeleton. Nobody could tell if it was a Vaudeville prop or the real thing so they called in a forensics team from Toronto.

The trunk was put aside and the team finally arrived a few days later. It was gone!

Confusion during major renovations, it’s believed contractors tossed it into a dumpster. If true, then there’s a dusty steamer trunk in a junkyard somewhere that may contain the answer to, “What ever happen to the man who owned the theatre?”

“The boy under the statue”

2 statues stand slowly rotting inside that auditorium. Staff constantly heard noises from inside a large vent under Caesar.

They said it was a crying child. Curiosity caused some to pull off the vent cover, but stopped when seeing a dirty, dusty void. Then for one week straight the boy cried every day, causing a frustrated theatre manager to crawl in.

He didn’t find a ghost. Instead, under a pile of dirt was a piece of paper. He Cleaned it up to reveal a report card belonging to a boy in Grade 4 who attended a local public school.

Norbert T. Rottweiler —

“Nobby” to his friends was The theatre manager’s pet that moonlighted as the theaters guard dog.

The manager locked the front office every night, only giving Nobby access to the foyer and lobby. One morning he came in to find his dog was missing. Frantically looking everywhere until hearing a whimpering behind the locked front office door. He Opened it and Nobby ran out.

The office was locked and the manager sure Nobby was outside that door. But maybe he was mistaken… until the next night when it happened again.

The only explanation is something unlocked and opened the door, waited for Nobby to walk in, then closed and locked it behind him. Multiple staff members witnessed the occurrence.

The Abandoned Tivoli Theatre







Behind the Stage

Details







The Pokemon Characters

The Selfies and Group Shots







360 Degree Interactive Photography