The Globe and Mail

Ever since being given John Sebert's The Nabes: Toronto's Wonderful Neighbourhood Movie Houses (Mosaic Press, 2001) for Christmas a few years ago, I've been on the lookout for survivors or thoughtful adaptive reuses of these little gems. They hail from a time when you could walk to everything -- places such as the local produce market, shoe repair shop, and theatres where you could enjoy the small luxury of a movie. It's a game my wife and I play: If we see a convenience store or a laundromat that looks as if it might have had, shall we say, a grander past, we go home and consult the book to check if we're right. Recently, I was driving along Kingston Road west of Victoria Park when I spotted what most will remember as a pool hall, but in its former life had been a rather large, 700-seat movie theatre called the Scarboro, built in 1936 as part of the B&F theatre chain.